Highway to Hell
by belladonna78
Summary: Taken in by John Winchester at 15, after killing her father when possessed, Beth has lived a hunter life ever since. Now she fights, lives and loves alongside his sons, and has a destiny to play. Dean/OC, SPN as it should have written! Follows the series. Read Ch1 for intro. I don't own SPN stories or it's chars, just everything else. Better than it sounds. Please read & review.
1. Author's Note

**Author's Notes (edited slightly during proofreading and minor fix-ups 30/7/13)**

_I've been a big fan of _Supernatural _since it started. I'm definitely Team Dean, but hey, the whole cast has some seriously awesome eye candy going on. I've been tossing around this storyline for a long time, and with 7 seasons down I'm a little hesitant to take it on now (especially when most of my inspiration is coming from Season 4!), it may be a BIG project. But I'm in the mood to write, and I have no other inspiration right now, so I'll write as I'm inspired and see how far I get._

_To take you off on a little tangent... I'm also huge Sabewan (Obi-wan Kenobi & Sabe) fan from the Star Wars fanfic. Dean and Obi-wan strike me as similar in many ways. They're both bound by their duties, their sense of honour and their self-sacrifice. My favourite story with Sabewan was _**Fair Maiden, Shining Knight** _by Sweet Christabel (look it up here on FF). It's the story as I would have loved to have seen it told - it's perfect. __  
_

_In this story, Sweet Christabel takes the handmaiden Sabe and writes from her perspective about the love that grew and was finally consummated by her and Obi-wan, following the six movies from start to finish, telling a story that paralleled the original. I couldn't have asked for a better writing of this. It was phenomenal - I can't watch the movies now, they just don't seem right, like half the story is missing!_

_It inspired me to follow on with my own take on_ Supernatural._ I feel it's never fair to have to watch Dean battle every day to save a world, while everything he loves is ripped from him. And I love a little (consistent) romance, so I wanted to write in an OC just for Dean._

_She takes the form of Elizabeth (Beth) O'Malley. Taken in by John at age 15 when her father (a minister, also a hunter) was murdered. She is raised by John like a daughter, learning their ways. But of course, feelings develop between her and Dean, and eventually are acted upon._

_The first series picks up a few years after they admit their feelings for each other. Dean and Beth are a solid hunting team together, but there is something wrong with Beth, an injury from a previous job. And John is missing. They are vulnerable, and they need help. Help in the form of Sam, their 'little brother' who had left the family. _

_Obviously that means I'm going to have to change a bit of the Canon storyline. Clearly Lisa and Dean are not going to develop as much, though she is in there - some of the story with her will be replaced with Beth. And Anna... well, I never liked her anyway, so she doesn't get to do the deed with Dean ;) Dean is still a bit of a flirt, I'm not taking that from him, but it's a more harmless flirtation with women, it's his nature, but he's loyal to Beth, he loves her. Beth understands that and accepts him for who he is._

_So I hope you enjoy it. I'm mostly writing this for me, but reviews are most welcome, especially if you're liking the story - I'm more inclined to keep going if I know people are enjoying it! _

_This is Beth's story._

_P.S. I might not get through all the episodes, some may end up being shorter than others, and so on. But if there's a particular episode you really want me to do and I skip it, let me know, if I can see it to write it, then I will :)_

_P.P.S. I'm from Australia, but I lived in the US for eight years, so I try to keep with the US terminology as much as possible because of the series being based there - ie. in Australia it's not "trunk and hood" it's "boot and bonnet" on a car ... but you'll probably see the spelling kind of more Australian from habit... sorry about that, I just can't get my head around changing s to z and so on. Also, if I put a date on something, it'll be in DD/MM/YY format, also an Oz thing._


	2. Woman in White -updated 19sep13

**Updated: 19 September 2013**

* * *

**WOMAN IN WHITE**

* * *

**Stanford University**

**Present Day – Halloween**

There was a fine haze that hung in the bar, dancing with the cobwebs and spiders and other tacky Halloween decorations that were suspended from the ceiling. I stood in the corner of the little bar, a hood drawn over my features as I watched the three friends throwing back some drinks and having a laugh. I sipped casually at my drink, just a coke but could have been anything to the untrained eye. It was good to see them so happy, enjoying life.

I sighed slightly before turning to leave, melting into the crowd of party goers like a wraith into the fog. These people had no idea what was out there, they had no idea of the horrors that could exist in the dark. Sometimes I wished that I'd been allowed the privilege of this life too. But that life had been ripped from me a long time ago, against my wishes – it seemed a lifetime ago.

Stepping out into the warm night's air, I stopped a moment to take a breath. It was a little suffocating, humid and dank. I felt the rise of my diaphragm stretch, arms stretching up as I yawned. My eyes glanced up to the stars that hung suspended overhead, beautiful. While I would never truly feel comfortable in the darkness, I had at least made my peace with it.

A shadow moved just barely from its place behind a tree in the parking lot. I instantly tensed, ready for action, my hand moving casually to the small of my back where my gun was lodged in my waistband, the cool surface of the barrel pressed against my spine.

It didn't need to go further. The intruder stepped out into the light, a curious smile tugging at full lips. I sighed again, this time in resignation and crossed quickly to him. He moved me into the shadows as a group of students drunkenly stumbled past us, pushing me against the tree, the rough bark uncomfortable against my back, digging in through the light cotton shirt I wore. But his warm, hard body against mine, the way his mouth lingered over my own made up for it. I smiled.

"I told you not to go near him." He said huskily. I looked into those amazing hazel eyes. He wasn't mad, but he was concerned. I looked down at his shoulder, trying to form an answer.

"I just wanted to make sure he was ok. It's been a long time, he looks happy. Maybe we don't need to..." I stopped short as he shook his head.

"Beth..." He growled at me, an exasperated sigh parting his lips. He didn't move away, just looked at me, catching my eyes like a deer in the headlights.

"I wouldn't, if I thought we didn't need him. You think I like this any better than you do?" He asked.

"I know, I know." I sighed, my head fell forward resting on his chest, and we stayed like this for a few heartbeats.

"Fresh eyes." He said. I nodded, the hood had fallen back from my head revealing the rich, dark hair that fell in waves around my face. He seemed distracted at this, and reached out to twirl a couple of tendrils absently in his fingers. But I knew he was thinking about the job; about the friends inside the bar; about the way there were a couple of drunken men lingering over by the van parked a few cars away, assessing us. The way they'd looked at me hadn't gone unnoticed, and my companion was putting on a show for their benefit.

I lifted my head, eyes meeting his, letting him see how sorry I was that we had very little choice about our current situation.

"For Dad," I whispered, he smiled, reaching up to stroke a gentle finger along my cheek, then moved in to kiss me, gently first just a bare whisper against my lips, and then more urgent as this got the attention of the two men watching. I felt myself fall into the kiss, my hands trailing up along the sides of his body, pulling him against me as I slid my right leg in between his, catching the barest gasp from him and igniting a twinkle in his eye. The two men had a brief exchange and then stalked away, seemingly having decided to leave us alone.

"OK. So are they leaving?" He asked, glancing up with a nod toward the bar. "Or settling in for the night?"

"They looked pretty comfortable." I responded, looking in the same direction.

"Then we wait." He said. "Let's go back to the car." He said with a wink. He started to pull me away, the hunch of his shoulders was a give away for the resignation he was feeling in calling his brother back into "the family business". I fought off the feeling of despair and helplessness that was settling into my gut. As my hand dropped away from his he turned to face me.

"Dean..." I started. He looked at me questioningly.

"Nothing. I just wish things were different." I glanced down to hide all the emotion coming into my eyes, I wished a lot of things were different.

Dean sighed, and crossed the couple of feet back to me, pulling me tightly into his arms and resting his lips against my forehead. "I know." He whispered. "I know, me too." He kissed me gently on the temples, forcing a grin to his mouth.

"It's just a routine trip. Nothing to worry about. Sam will be back here soon enough, besides, you know how much we fight, he's a pain in the ass to have around!" I shook my head, forcing a grin to my face. I wanted to believe him. My gut told me otherwise.

Allowing Dean to pull me along by the hand, I followed him to the black Impala parked at the back of the parking lot between a van and some bushes. It had a hard time blending in with the rest of the world, but she was Dean's pride and joy, and I enjoyed seeing his eyes light up every time he came upon the '67 beauty. _Too rarely do they light up these days_ I reflected sadly. Sliding in to the front seat next to Dean, I moved over to put my head against his shoulder, his arm slid around me and held me gently as we settled in for the next few hours.

Reality would be here before we knew it, when we would need to pick up the trail once more. For Sam, that reality had been something he'd been hiding from for a long time. I only hoped he was enjoying his evening out with friends, because it would all change soon enough.

* * *

**Sam's Apartment Building 3 hours later**

It was dark, past midnight, and I was starting to feel weary from the 'stakeout' at the bar. I should have been able to get some sleep, but too many thoughts were going through my mind, and even though I tried to meditate, pray, to push them from my consciousness, they lingered in the background, taunting me as I was left fingering my rosary, old and worn, a gift from my father. Dean thought it was silly and sentimental, a complete waste of time, but I took comfort in the worn wooden beads, capped either side with iron findings, slipping between my fingers. The prayers flowed silently through my mind. It calmed me, I think he knew that, which is why he mostly humoured me in my practice.

It was dark as I followed Dean to the apartment door, both of us slipping in unnoticed after he picked the lock. The only light in the apartment came from a single lamp and the full moon outside filtering through the windows. I allowed my eyes the time to adjust to the darkness, Dean was wandering around in the living room, not really hiding the fact that he was there, Sam would hear and be out in a moment, so I flopped into an armchair to wait for him.

We didn't have to wait long. Sam came stalking out of the shadows in the hallway, a bundle of tense energy, tall and athletic, muscles bunched as he made straight for Dean. He hadn't seen me, I let him pass. He grabbed Dean in a headlock, but it was easily broken by the other man, who was pushing Sam back and swinging him further into the room, breaking into an attack with a front kick. Punches landed, and I flinched, wondering for a moment just how far Dean wanted to take this. There was a lot of anger simmering inside the older sibling.

Sam retaliated with a kick of his own, and Dean took the opportunity to block, bringing him in close so he could throw Sam to the ground. Sam breathed heavily, clutching at the hand at his throat before the light hit his assailant's face. "Dean?" He asked breathlessly as the face over him swam into vision. Dean laughed, a hearty chuckle.

"You scared the crap out of me!" Sam growled.

"That's because you're out of practice." Dean taunted bringing a grunt of annoyance from Sam. I raised an eyebrow as Sam wrapped his legs around Dean, throwing him to the ground and pinning him under his weight to the sound of more chuckles.

"Or not." Dean laughed.

I chose this moment to step in, wrapping my arm around Sam's throat, getting him in a headlock he wasn't expecting. "Easy tiger!" I commanded, and Sam froze.

"Beth?!" He asked, turning to look at me. I laughed and stepped back with a slight bow. Sam smiled, and then looked back at Dean.

Dean grunted "Get off me." Sam stood up helping him to his feet as they stood staring at each other in the darkened room.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sam asked. Dean was straightening out Sam's shirt and playfully patted him on the arms.

"I was looking for a beer." Dean grinned, his laugh dying in his throat at the stoney look from Sam.

"What the hell, are you doing here?" Sam asked again, very serious, demanding answers.

"OK, all right," Dean nodded. "We gotta talk."

"Ahhh, the phone?" Sam looked at him with a slightly exasperated look.

"If we'd have called, would you have picked up?" I asked pointedly.

The lights flipped on before he could answer, the beautiful blond girl from earlier, was standing sleepily in the entrance to the living room.

"Sam?" She asked.

"Jess..." Sam said, choosing his words carefully.

"Dean, this is my girlfriend Jessica." Sam said. Dean was sizing her up, I raised my eyebrow with a grin toward Sam.

"Wait, your brother Dean?" Jess asked, stepping into the room. She was wearing a tight grey t-shirt with the Smurfs on it, it was cut seductively low accenting the curves of her breasts. Dean gestured with a grin, and stepped toward her.

"I love the Smurfs," he said flirtatiously. I stifled a smile and Sam looked at us both with a look of bewilderment.

"You know I gotta tell you, you are completely out of my brother's league." Dean smiled at her. She shifted uncomfortably at that comment, then catching my eyes her face relaxed into a smile.

"You must be Beth?" She said, stepping forward to give me a hug. "I feel like I know you, Sam has mentioned you a lot." She stepped back with a big smile.

"Has he now?" I asked, smiling in return.

"Only good things." She nodded. "But you should keep a better leash on Dean here, before his comments get him in to trouble."

She cast a wary eye in Dean's direction, who had moved to put an arm around me, his fingers circling lazily at my back, an amused smile on his face as he feigned innocence. Sam's eyes widened a little at this gesture of intimacy coming from his brother, but he said nothing.

"Oh there isn't a leash on the planet that can keep Dean in check." I answered, looking at him as he did me. He pretended to be offended, and I punched him playfully in the arm.

"Now now, don't be like that, there is plenty of Dean to go around ladies." He looked at us both with a laugh. I just shook my head, he was incorrigible.

"Well anyway, I gotta borrow your boyfriend here to talk about some private family business, but uh, nice meetin' you!" Dean said to Jess, starting to push Sam toward an empty room.

Sam tensed, looking from me, to Jess and finally to Dean before moving away from us.

"No," Sam said. "No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her." He placed an arm possessively around Jess' waist and pulled her against his tall frame. She was looking back and forth between Dean and Sam, curious as to what was going on, sensing the unspoken tension between the brothers as they both tried to get their points across.

Dean threw me a look that contained all the frustration he often felt toward his little brother. I shrugged and flopped down on the futon behind me, putting my feet up on the coffee table, my arms crossed over my chest. This hadn't been my idea.

Dean shrugged and turned toward the couple.

"OK." He said, taking a breath. "Um, Dad hasn't been home in a few days."

Sam shrugged. "So he's working overtime on on a miller time shift, he'll stumble back in sooner or later."

Dean looked down, nodding to himself. Then, back at Sam with more force.

"Dad's on a hunting trip. And he hasn't been home in a few days." He stated more seriously, letting those words sink in.

Sam stared at Dean for a few heartbeats before his eyes flicked to me. The reality of the situation started to press upon him as I could see the effect of Dean's simple words combine with the fact that both of us were here. Both of us, looking for him.

"Jess excuse us." Sam said. "We have to go outside."

* * *

Sam was trailing us as we came down the stairs from the apartment muttering to us about all his responsibilities and how irresponsible we were being.

"I mean, you can't just break in, middle of the night, and expect me to hit the road with you." Sam said.

"You're not hearing me Sammy. Dad's missing. I need you to help us find him." Our eyes met briefly before I rounded the landing and headed down the next flight of steps to the ground.

Sam didn't miss a breath. "Remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the devil's gate in Clifton, he was missing then too, he's always missing, and he's always fine." He was shrugging into a brown jacket to ward off the coolness of the night's air.

"Not for this long." Dean answered. "Are you going to come with us or not?"

"I'm not." Sam replied, pausing on the bottom step looking down at his brother.

"Why not?" Dean asked, genuinely confused. I smiled to myself, sometimes Dean just didn't get it, he was too caught up in the lifestyle to even contemplate why Sam didn't want to join us, didn't want to get roped back in.

"I swore I was done hunting, for good." Sam said.

"Come on, it wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad." Dean said walking off. I stepped back, better to let them sort this out without me getting in the middle. I reflected ruefully that I always seemed to be in the middle with Sam and Dean. When Sam had left us to go to college it had left an unspoken void. But it had also created a rift, one that I'd tried to bridge by keeping in touch with Sam while Dean seethed at the rejection of the family.

The latter was leading the way down a short foyer toward the front door to the apartment building, it was dark, strange shadows played on the walls from the street lamps outside, reflecting patterns from the wrought-iron wiring on the door's window.

"Oh yeah?" Sam was saying. "When I told Dad I was afraid of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45" He stopped, sighing.

"What was he supposed to do?" Dean asked, turning to face Sam, looking up.

"I was nine years old." Sam said "He was supposed to say, 'Don't be afraid of the dark!'"

"Don't be afraid of the dark?! What are you kidding me, of course you should be afraid of the dark, you know what's out there!" Dean countered. I sighed. We all knew what was out there.

"Yeah I know, but still, the way we grew up after Mom was killed... and Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her. But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find!" Shadows fell across both their faces, accentuated by the wrought iron, causing strange, tattoo-like patterns on their handsome features.

"And save a lot of people doing it too." I said quietly, stepping closer to them. Sam stopped for a moment, looking at me, his eyes softening. He placed his hand on my shoulder, we all paused. I know all three of us were thinking back to the first time we'd met. I had been 15, the daughter of a minister, and a demon has possessed me. If it hadn't been for the boys' father, John Winchester, who knows where I'd be.

Sam barely remembered the event, he hadn't been highly involved in hunting then. My father had been an old friend of John's, and also a hunter; the demon that killed him thought it would be fun to do it in the meat suit of his own daughter. John had arrived too late to save my father, but they had saved me. They exorcised the demon, sent it back to Hell, but it was too late, my entire family was gone.

"You think Mom would have wanted this for us?" Sam asked. He looked at me. "You think your Mom would have wanted this for you?" I looked down. I didn't know what my mother would have wanted, she was dead, just like theirs.

Dean turned, slamming his hand hard against the gate, walking up the stairs to the Impala. Sam followed him, hurrying to keep pace.

"The weapons training, and melting the silver into bullets." The last comment directed at me, ammunitions was my speciality, after scripture.

"Beth, we were raised like warriors!" Sam said, trying to get ahead of his brother but watching me too. I set my face to impassive, my loyalties were torn. These were my brothers, my friends, my saviours. I loved them both, I saw both sides of the argument, but I had a mission, I had a destiny that was bigger than what my mother would have wanted for me. A destiny that was forever changed the day that demon entered my body and drove a knife into my father.

"So what are you gonna do? You just gonna live some normal, apple pie life. Is that it?" Dean asked, turning to face Sam. His jaw was set with a stubborn look, I shook my head, we were beyond a normal life, Sam just didn't understand that.

"No, not normal, safe." Sam replied.

"That's why you ran away." Dean scoffed.

Sam's face was soft and open, none of the experiences which had jaded Dean's existence. He tried to get his brother to look at him, to understand.

"I was just going to college." He said softly. "It was Dad who said if I was going to go, I should stay gone." I shifted uncomfortably, recalling the argument, wanting to put it to the back of my mind.

"And that's what I'm doing." Sam finished.

"Yeah well Dad's in real trouble right now." I said, searching Sam's eyes. He didn't miss the reference, John was my father too.

"If he's not dead already." Dean muttered.

"We can't do this alone," I said. Couldn't he see that? Couldn't he see that we wouldn't be here if we didn't need him, need his eyes, his logical sifting through information, his strength.

"Yes you can." Sam said. He looked at us both, frowning. I could see he was wondering what had happened to us that suddenly the two of us couldn't sort out this simple missing person case. Dean was looking at me, I opened my mouth to tell Sam why we needed him but Dean shook his head, _not the time. _Instead, he played a different card, one that he knew Sam would respond to, one he held close to his chest.

"Yeah well, I don't want to." Dean admitted.

Sam sighed, looking down. He took a few heartbeats to think about what he was about to ask, then looked up at me.

"What was he hunting?"

Dean opened the trunk of the Impala, then propped the spare tire section open with a shotgun. The arsenal that greeted us instead of an ordinary spare tire was a strange comfort, and Dean started rifling through all the contents. Weaponry of all sorts was attached to the black interior – guns, bows, knives, charms.

"Where the hell did I put that thing?" He muttered to himself. I reached out to grab the paperwork which was tucked behind a couple of boxes of ammo. He smiled and took it from me, rifling through it.

"So when Dad left, why didn't you go with him?" Sam asked, looking at us both.

I looked down guiltily at the ground, biting my lip. Dean saw this and threw me a brief look of sympathy.

"Beth and I were down in New Orleans working our own gig, this uh, voo doo thing. She was sick as a dog on the couch, thanks to copping a whack from some witch doctor. Should have seen it, puking and gagging all over the..." I kicked him in the shin and he flinched. "Yeah, well, it wasn't nice, let me tell you baby." He rubbed his shin and gave me an apologetic look. There was more to that story, but he left it unsaid.

Sam suppressed a smile. "Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourselves?"

Dean looked up at him, a raised eyebrow. "I'm 26 dude!" I chuckled, Sam had been gone too long.

He grabbed some papers and stood straight again.

"OK here we go. So Dad was checking out this two-lane black top just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy went missing, they found his car but he had vanished, completely MIA."

Dean handed Sam a printout of an article from the _Jericho Herald_, headlined "Centennial Highway Disappearance" and dated Sept. 19th 2005; it had a man's picture, captioned "Andrew Carey MISSING". SAM read it and glanced up.

"So maybe he was kidnapped." Sam stated.

"Yeah, well," Dean said dismissively. "Here's another one in April," he threw down another printout from the _Jericho Herald. _"Another one in December '04, '03, '98, '92... 10 of them over the past 20 years." All punctuated with a sheet of paper, all from the _Herald. _He snatched the sheet of paper from Sam's hand, putting the stack of prints back in the folder.. "All men, all same 5 mile stretch of road."

I pulled out a map and unfolded it. "It started happening more and more, so Dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. We haven't heard from him since, which is bad enough." I said.

"Then we get this voicemail yesterday." Dean continued, bringing out the portable tape recorder we'd used to capture the message from his phone. He flipped the play switch and we all listened.

John's voice came over the speaker, faint, full of static. "Dean... something big is starting to happen... I think it's serious...I need to try... figure out... going on. It may... be very careful, Dean. We're all in danger." Dean pressed stop on the recorder.

"You know there's EVP on that?" Sam asked, looking at us both.

"Not bad Sammy, kind of like riding a bike isn't it?" Dean smiled. Sam shook his head.

"All right." Dean said, bringing the recorder up again. "I slowed the message down, ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got."

Dean pressed play again, I waited for the inevitable voice to come. We'd listened to it countless times in the last 24 hours, but it still made no sense to us. A woman's voice fades in. "I can never go home."

Dean pressed stop again.

"Never go home?" Sam said.

Dean dropped the recorder in with the weapons, pulling the shotgun out and shutting the trunk to lean on it. I placed a hand supportively on his shoulder, lightly squeezing it. Dean sighed.

"You know, in over two years I've never bothered you, never asked you for a thing." Dean said.

Sam sighed, looking away while he weighed up his options. Finally, he looked back at us.

"All right. I'll go. I'll help you find him." He was giving me a look like he wasn't quite sure why we couldn't handle it alone. I didn't want to admit that the last message from John had chilled me to my bones. I wasn't sure what it was about it, but it had a dark foreboding about it that I couldn't quite place. Like any time now our lives were going to change, and not necessarily for the better.

"But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here." Sam turned to go back into the apartment.

"What's first thing Monday?" I called out.

He turned back, a pensive look on his face. "I have this... I have an interview."

"What, a job interview?" Dean asked. "Skip it."

"It's a law school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate." Sam answered.

"Law school?" Dean smirked, raising an eyebrow at me. I was impressed, and let it show in my eyes to Sam. He smiled.

"So we got a deal or not?"

Dean said nothing, and Sam just shrugged and walked back into the house. He waited until Sam had gone before turning to me, a tired look in his eyes.

"Law school?" He scoffed.

I smiled again, putting my arms around his waist.

"I think it's good." Kissing him softly on the lips. He frowned, obviously not agreeing.

"Are you sure we need to drag him along with us?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah, you're not completely over this hoo doo, flu doo, thing that witch doctor hit you with..." I started to protest but he covered my mouth with a finger. "Don't deny it, I see it in your eyes." I blew a hot, frustrated breath out of my mouth. But I didn't disagree.

"You're not leaving me here Dean." I gave him a cold hard stare and he shifted uncomfortably. "Dean." I growled warningly.

"Yeah, ok ok. You can come, but you're staying in the car!" I grinned at him and slid my hands down over his arse, cupping his buttocks and giving a little squeeze.

"Can't argue with that. We have so much … fun... in that car." I winked and gave him a peck on the cheek before turning to slide into the back seat where I planned to ride out the trip to Jericho in complete and utter unconsciousness.

Dean was right, I wasn't fully recovered, I was tired, and kept having dizzy spells, among other things. I felt a whole lot better now that Sam was coming along to back him up.

* * *

**Service Station  
****The next day**

I woke up to the sounds of the Allman Brothers singing _Ramblin' Man _playing over the stereo. A precursory glance around showed we were stopped at some backwater out of the way gas station getting supplies. I rolled down my window to get some fresh air, stretching a little as I looked around for Dean. Sam was in the passenger seat rifling through a box of cassettes.

"Morning Sam." I yawned.

"Hey, Beth, good morning. How'd you sleep?" He asked, smiling back at me.

"Like someone who just rode out the night in the back of an Impala..." I said, rubbing my neck where it had gone stiff from the position I'd fallen asleep in. I should have laid down before crashing, guess I was more tired than I thought.

"Hey," Dean called out to Sam, coming up to the back of the car. "You want breakfast?" He was waving a bunch of food around in his hands.

"No thanks." Sam answered. Dean passed me a muffin and coffee through the window. I shot him a grateful smile and he winked at me before leaning in to give me a quick kiss.

"Morning sleepy head." He whispered before heading around to the back of the car to finish the refueling. Sam took this exchange in with another curious gaze. It would be an odd thing for him to see the exchanges between his "love 'em and leave 'em" brother and myself, who he regarded as a sister. He opened his mouth to ask me a question, thought better about it and closed it again. Another time.

"So how'd you pay for that stuff? You and Dad still running credit card scams?" Sam asked instead.

"Yeah, well, hunting ain't exactly a pro ball career." Dean said, putting the nozzle back on the pump and wiping his hands on his jeans.

"Besides," He said. "All we do is apply. It's not out fault they send us the cards."

"Yeah? And what names did you write on the application this time?" Sam asked, swinging his legs back inside the car and closing the door.

Dean walked around to the driver's door, a thoughtful look on his face. "Uh... Burt Aframian..." He said, getting into the driver seat and putting his soda and chips down. "And his son Hector. Scored two cards out of the deal."

"That sounds about right." Sam said, tossing a tape back into the box with a look of contempt. "I swear, man, you've gotta update your cassette tape collection."

"Why?" Dean asked.

"Well for one, they're _cassette tapes. _And two," Sam holds up a tape. "Black Sabbath?" He grabbed another tape "Motorhead?" And another tape "Metallica?" Dean grabbed the Metallica tape off Sam.

"It's the greatest hits of mullet rock." Sam laughed.

"Well, house rules, Sammy." Dean said, dropping the tape back into the box. "Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole."

"What about me?" I asked from the back seat. He glanced in the rear view mirror at me with a grin.

"No backseat driving ya hear?" He laughed, starting the engine.

"You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve-year old." Sam said, changing the subject. "It's Sam, ok?"

AC/DCs _Back in Black _started to play loudly over the speakers, I settled back in the seat nursing my coffee. It was going to be a long day listening to these two quarrel all the way to Jericho.

"Sorry, I can't hear you, the music's too loud!" Dean said, driving off.

* * *

**7 miles out of Jericho ****Later that day**

It was several hours later, I had a cellphone plastered to my ear as we rocketed past a sign. 7 miles to Jericho.

I finished up the phone call with a "Thank you." Dean's eyes met mine through the rearview mirror.

"All right. So there's no one matching Dad's description at the hospital or the morgue."

"That's something, I guess." Sam replied. Dean said nothing, just shot a glance at Sam out of the corner of his eye, then looked back at the road. I sat up to get a better look at what had caught his eye.

Two police cars were parked at the suspension bridge we were approaching, several officers stood around talking into radios, or looking down the steep embankment that led to the river. Dean slowed the car, pulling over. All three of us paused for a moment before Dean, seeming to reach some kind of unspoken decision turned the engine off.

Reaching across Sam, Dean opened the glove compartment where we kept our box of fake ID. He started to sift through them, I couldn't see what he had decided on. But I did know that there would be ID for the two of us in there, nothing for Sam. Dean picked out an ID with a grin. I sat forward and ran my fingers through my medium length hair trying to straighten it out, waiting for him to hand me my badge. Dean absently reached out to tuck a stray lock behind my ear, his beautiful hazel eyes meeting mine with a cheeky look.

"Ohhh, no no no no Dean. I can do some routine questioning!" I protested. Sam raised his eyebrow.

"Nope cherrypie, you promised to stay in the car." Dean quipped, "So that's where you're staying." He chucked me under the chin and then patted the back seat, turning to Sam. "Let's go."

I slumped back in my seat with a sigh, crossing my arms across my chest, letting my displeasure show clearly on my face. Dean shrugged unapologetically at me, and then turned to walk toward the gathered officers, Sam falling in behind. I strained to hear what was being said from the open window.

Sighing, I reached for my cell and called Dean, he stopped to take the call, looking back at me in the car.

"At least put me on speaker phone?" I asked.

He laughed, I saw him press a button and then slip his phone into his pocket, I heard the telltale rustle of fabric against the mic and smiled. At least I'd be able to hear what was going on. I hated being in the dark.

A couple of officers were standing by an abandoned car talking. Dean and Sam walked straight in, just like John had taught us. _No fear, we belong here. _I heard the familiar sound of Dean's voice float back to me over the cellphone.

"You fellas had another one like this just last month, didn't you?" He asked.

The deputy looked up at this intrusion, straightening to talk to them. He looked them over before challenging "And who are you?"

Dean flashed his badge and stated "Federal marshals."

The officer raised his eyebrow. "You two are a little young for marshals, aren't you?" I heard him ask and stifled a grin. Dean took it in his stride with a laugh, glancing at Sam.

"Thanks, that's awfully kind of you." He said dismissively, not really answering the question outright. He sauntered past the Deputy to inspect the car. I found myself itching, wanting to get out and take a look at the scene laid out before me. It was no surprise Dean was being overprotective, but sometimes I just needed him to look past the young woman he had to protect and see the partner at his side. Most of the time he was good, until I got hurt.

"You did have another one just like this, correct?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, that's right. About a mile up the road. There's been others before that," was the reply.

"So, this victim, you knew him?" Sam this time, doing the questioning.

"Town like this, everybody knows everybody." I heard the response and wondered fleetingly what it was like to live in a town like that, having everyone in your business. I'd had it briefly, as a young child, before my mother had died. Then my father, a minister, had travelled around with me, doing his ministry, helping others. I didn't know it at the time, but the moving around was because of the hunter lifestyle he'd hidden from me, not his ministry. My Dad's speciality had been demons. Ironically, the very same thing that took him from my world.

"Any connection between the victims, besides that they're all men?" Dean was asking, I felt myself pulled out of my thoughts, and returned to the conversation.

"No, not so far as we can tell," came the response.

"So what's the theory?" Sam asked.

"Honestly, we don't know. Serial murder? Kidnapping ring?" I shook my head and chuckled.

"Well, that is exactly the kind of crack police work I'd expect out of you guys." Dean was giving him the attitude, I cringed. Sam obviously agreed with me because there was the sound of leather scraping leather as he stomped on Dean's food, hard.

"Thank you for your time." Sam said before starting to walk away, Dean following. I could imagine Sam was seething, shaking his head, lips tight and angry as he stormed ahead of Dean, headed back to the car. I watched for them but they were still out of range. Suddenly I heard another sound and Sam's voice coming across the cell phone.

"Ow! What was that for?" Sam asked, his voice full of venom.

"Why'd you have to step on my foot?" They weren't far from the car now and I sat up straighter, there were several mean heading across the bridge toward them, but the boys were caught up in their own conversation. I had no way to warn them.

"Why do you have to talk to the police like that?" Sam asked angrily. Dean looked at Sam, moving in front of him, forcing him to stop walking so he could look him in the eye.

"Come on. They don't really know what's going on. We're all alone on this. I mean, if we're going to find Dad we've got to get to the bottom of this thing ourselves."

Sam glanced up and I breathed a sigh of relief as he cleared his throat, looking over Dean's shoulder. Dean turned to look at the Sheriff now standing before him. The Sheriff was of small stature, broad shoulders, and a belly that had seen a few too many donuts on duty; he stared Dean and Sam down from behind dark shades, none too pleased to have yet more outsiders involved in his case.

"Can I help you boys?" He asked.

"No sir, we were just leaving." Dean replied. The other two men, dressed in black suits, white shirts and ties started to walk past Dean, they were obviously FBI. He nodded to them as they passed,

"Agent Mulder. Agent Scully." I shook my head. Always the joker.

Without a word, the boys walked past the Sheriff and back to the car, the Sheriff was watching them from his place on the bridge and I scooted further back into the car so as not to draw attention to myself.

"So what now?" I asked as they settled back into the car.

"Now, we got a distraught girlfriend to find." Dean said, starting the car up, it was only a few miles to town.

* * *

**Jericho, California**

The young girl before us was wearing a deep brown leather jacket, fringe hanging from the sleeves. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail. She was reaching inside a messenger bag, pulling out flyers which were being taped to the theatre wall she was outside of. We watched this scene for a moment before I started to cross the road, leading the way.

Dean and I had argued about my "leaving the car", but I couldn't stand the waiting, and he knew it. I never liked to wait, or be put on the sidelines. He didn't push his luck.

I walked up to the girl, the boys were following me, deep, calm breaths – in through the nose, out through the mouth. _I belonged here. _Game face on.

"You must be Amy?" I asked as I reached her side. The girl looked me up and down before her eyes flicked to the boys behind me.

"Yeah." She responded, obviously not recognising us.

"Yeah, Troy told me about you. I'm his cousin, Beth. These are my brothers, Sam and Dean." The boys nodded at her, she turned and kept walking down the street, throwing a comment back at us.

"He never mentioned you to me."

"Well, that's Troy, I guess. We're not around much, we're up in Modesto." I replied with a shrug, trying to play the part of estranged family.

"So, we're looking for him too, and we're kinda asking around." Sam stepped in. A girl came up to Amy at this point, looking warily at us. I couldn't blame her, we were strangers in town, and locals tended to watch out after each other, especially during times of missing persons. She asked if Amy was ok. Amy nodded at her, a smile flicked at her friend.

"Would you mind if we ask you a couple of questions?" I asked, she looked at me, then nodded.

* * *

Sam and I were in a booth side by side, opposite us sat Amy and her friend Rachel, the girl from earlier. Dean looked bored, sitting in the booth behind Amy and Rachel, his legs stretched out in front of him, boots hanging off the end of the seat. I could tell he was far from it, alert from the set of his shoulders. He was listening, but also taking in the other diners, leaving the questioning to Sam and I. Amy was talking.

"I was on the phone with Troy. He was driving home. He said he would call me right back, and...he never did."

"He didn't say anything strange, or out of the ordinary?" Sam asked, giving her the puppy dog eyes that nearly always melted the heart of the girl receiving the look, and getting her to spill her guts. It was something that I admired, I had my own compassionate way of getting people to talk, but it didn't really work on the girls the same way that Sam's handsome face and shy smile did.

"No. Nothing I can remember." Amy replied.

"I like your necklace." I said, pointing to the pendant she wore. A pentagram in a circle. She looked down at it, fingering it, and muttered.

"Troy gave it to me. Mostly to scare my parents - With all that devil stuff." She laughed, looking up at us.

Sam laughed a little, looking down.

"Actually it means just the opposite," I interjected. "A pentagram is protection against evil. Really powerful. I mean, if you believe in that kind of thing." Dean looked across at me from behind the girls shrugging his shoulders.

"Okay. Thank you, Unsolved Mysteries." He shook his head at me, and I shrugged as they turned to look back at him.

"Look, here's the deal ladies." Dean said from behind them. "The way Troy disappeared, something's not right. So if you've heard anything..."

Amy and Rachel looked each other at that comment, it didn't go unnoticed by the three of us.

"What is it?" Dean asked.

"Well it's just... I mean, with all these guys going missing, people talk." Rachel said.

"What do they talk about?" Sam and I said in unison, bringing their attention back to us.

"It's kind of this local legend. This one girl? She got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago." I looked at Sam, he was watching Rachel intently, as if willing her to go on with nothing other than his eyes.

"Well, supposedly she's still out there." Rachel said, looking slightly uncomfortable and as if she expected us to not take her seriously. When Sam just nodded, she finished. "She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up? Well, they disappear forever."

I looked at Sam, who met my eyes. Now it was getting interesting.

* * *

**Jericho Library**

The lights of the library were practically non-existent. I sighed, plopping down into a chair next to Dean. "Wouldn't kill them to open a few curtains, or turn on a bloody light. A little sunshine for Pete's sake." I muttered grumpily. I hated the dark.

Dean smiled at me briefly, typing away at the computer in front of him. He kissed me quickly before turning back to the computer and I allowed myself a moment to lay my head on his shoulder, feeling his warmth enter me, to breathe, to remind myself that we were in a library, and it was a good day. Any day with Dean, safe, was a good day. We sat that way, comforted by each other's presence, for a few moments. Finally, breaking contact, I leaned forward to see what he'd put into the search box of the _Jericho Herald_. "Female Murder Hitchhiking". Dean hit enter, the little hourglass on the screen indicated it was searching for articles matching the query. It came back with 0 hits. Dean replaced the words with "Female Murder Centennial Highway", again, 0 results.

Sam was pacing behind us, watching everything from over Dean's shoulder.

"Let me try." He said, reaching over him, pushing me to the side a little. I allowed my chair to roll away and waited for the inevitable. Dean smacked Sam's hand.

"I got it." He said.

Sam shoved Dean's chair out of the way in the other direction, pulling up his own chair and taking a seat at the computer.

"Dude!" Dean exclaimed, punching Sam in the shoulder. "You're such a control freak."

Sam ignored him, taking over. "So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?"

"Yeah," I answered.

"Well, maybe it's not murder." Sam replaced the word 'murder' in the search box with 'suicide' and hit enter.

There was one article, dated April 25, 1981 titled "Suicide on Centennial."

Sam started to summarise the article. "This was 1981. Constance Welch, twenty-four years old, jumps off Sylvania Bridge, drowns in the river." We all glance at the picture of Constance with the article, a pretty brunette with deep brown eyes and a happy smile.

"Does it say why she did it?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," Sam replied. "An hour before they found her, she calls 911. Apparently her two little kids are in the bathtub. She leaves them alone for a minute, and when she comes back, they aren't breathing. Both die."

Dean raised his eyebrows, I clasped both my hands under my chin, straining to get another look at this woman who had so tragically lost her children.

Sam scrolled down to photos of a bridge and a man standing near it, his head resting in his hand.

"'Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it,' said husband Joseph Welch." Sam finished. Dean inclined his head to the photograph.

"That bridge look familiar to you?" He asked us.

We both looked. It was the same bridge where Troy's car was found.

* * *

**Sylvania Bridge**

It was dark. We walked along the bridge, stopping to lean on the railing and look down at the river. The full moon overhead lit up the water below us, shimmering as the current rolled over rocks below. It was a fair drop to the surface. Not necessarily a kill drop if you were lucky, but if you were to hit the rocks, or land closer to the embankment where it was shallow, well, then it would be a suicide drop.

I was starting to think too much about things like this. The life we led. Absently my mind started to wander, to think about a life without the hunting. Dean and I, just the two of us, having a romantic stroll over a bridge under the full moon, hand in hand, looking out over the beautiful water below... not having to think about the darker aspects of such a place. I shook my head to clear my thoughts, Dean glanced at me briefly, a look of concern flashing through those hazel eyes – he thought I was suffering from the voo doo attack three weeks earlier. I managed a weak smile and shook my head at him, I was fine.

"So this is where Constance took the swan dive." Dean stated the obvious.

"You think Dad would have been here?" Sam asked looking at Dean.

"Well, he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him." Dean said with a shrug.

Dean continued walking along the bridge, Sam and I followed him.

"Okay, so now what?" Sam asked, blowing a sharp, frustrated breath out.

"Now we keep digging until we find him. Might take a while." Dean said simply, striding ahead of us.

"Dean, I told you, I've gotta get back by Monday—" I threw Sam a smile in support, getting a smile back. Dean turned around and I thought I could see a little regret in his eyes. It was quickly masked, probably not even noticeable to someone who didn't know him so well. I sympathised with him, I was just beginning to like having Sam around again too.

"Monday. Right. The interview." Dean said, deadpan.

"Yeah." Sam said.

"Yeah, I forgot. You're really serious about this, aren't you? You think you're just going to become some lawyer? Marry your girl?" He threw me an apologetic look again, it seemed I was getting a lot of those these days. We'd never had this discussion. Leaving the life. We didn't know anything else, nor would we even know where to start if we had wanted to step into simple, civilian life.

"Maybe. Why not?" Sam asked, glancing at us both.

"Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you've done?" Dean asked.

"No, and she's not ever going to know." Sam said quietly, but forcefully, a warning behind his words.

"Well, that's healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are." Dean stopped, turning around and walking again. Sam glanced at me, a look of frustration in those eyes then turned to follow Dean.

"And who's that Dean?" He asked.

"You're one of us." Dean replied simply.

Sam hurried to get ahead of Dean, intercepting him, making him stop walking by grabbing his arm.

"No. I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life." He said.

"You have a responsibility to—" Dean's comment was interrupted by Sam quickly.

"To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone. And she isn't coming back." I flinched as Dean grabbed Sam by the collar, shoving him up against the railing of the bridge. I stepped forward, my hand going instinctively to Dean's arm, tempering him, willing him to calm down. He was holding Sam, breathing a little heavier than usual, staring his younger brother in the eyes, trying to decide what to say next.

"Don't talk about her like that." He whispered forcefully before releasing Sam and walking away, shrugging off my hand, leaving Sam and I standing at the side of the bridge.

Something caught Dean's eye, I could see it in the way his demeanour changed, he straightened, his breath catching. I looked beyond him and saw her. A lady in a tattered white dress, standing on the railing. I started forward, joining Dean's side in an instant.

"Sam." I said, getting the younger man's attention. Sam joined us, stepping a few feet ahead of us, trying to get a better look.

The woman looked over at us, her long dark hair blowing in the wind – only there was no wind, it was an eerie sight, and then, just like that she was gone, stepping forward off the edge. We all broke into a run, coming to the railing and looking over. I don't know what we expecting to find, it had all been so sudden, I don't think any of us had actually expected her to just show up like that.

"Where'd she go?" Dean asked.

"I don't know." I whispered.

Behind us, the Impala's engine suddenly roared to life, the headlights turning on to shine down the bridge at us.

"What the—" Dean started, confused.

"Who's driving your car?" Sam asked.

Dean pulled his keys out of his pocket and jingled them. We both glanced at them, curious. Then the Impala jerked toward us, roaring down the stretch of highway along the bridge.

"Guys? Go! Go!" Sam called out, pulling me with him as we started to run away from the car down the length of the bridge. I glanced back, the car was moving faster than we were, there was only one option.

"Jump!" Dean yelled, pushing me toward the edge of the bridge.

In an instant we were all hurtling over the edge, I had a brief moment to panic, looking around for a handhold, something to grab on to, but there was nothing, I felt myself hurtling toward the water, and then someone grabbed my wrist, jerking me to a stop. I grabbed them with my other hand and hung on tightly. The car came to a screeching halt, and I was left dangling precariously from the edge of the bridge, held only by... Sam.

"You ok?" He asked, starting to pull me up on to the large round structure. His muscles strained under the effort to pull me up, I got my feet under me and helped, we clung to the edge of the bridge looking down into the water.

"Dean? Dean!" I yelled, panic in my voice. I searched the top of the water, he'd gone in, failing to grab a handhold on the bridge. "Dean!" I called out again.

A lone figure pulled himself out of the water, covered in mud.

"What?!" Came the reply from below. I sighed in relief, smiling at the sight of him, laying on his back at the edge of the water, chest heaving.

"Hey, are you all right?" Sam asked. Dean held up a hand in an A-OK sign.

"I'm super." He answered sarcastically.

Sam and I laughed, relieved to see him his usual, joker self. We scooted away from the edge of the bridge, climbing over the railing to inspect the car.

Dean rejoined us in a few moments, I had a towel from the car ready for him to wipe off some of the mud. He grimaced as he came up to me, he was shivering from the wet. I wrapped the towel around his shoulders, draping it over his head, and started to rub his hair with it. He protested only slightly, his hands moving to my hips to steady himself against me. I tutted my tongue at him and gently rubbed the mud from his face. He groaned, seeing that his hands had left muddy prints on my shirt, and flicked mud off his hands.

"Don't worry about it." I whispered, searching out his eyes, needing to know if he was ok. I was checking him over with my hands as I wiped him down with the towel. He allowed me this little thing, breathing heavy and throwing his arms up in frustration.

"Well she doesn't want us digging around, that's for sure!" He growled. I stood up to look at him again.

Sam had opened the hood of the car and was looking at the engine. Dean stalked over to look himself, to reassure himself that his pride and joy was unharmed.

"Is it ok?" I asked, joining them.

"Yeah," Dean answered. "Whatever she did to it, seems all right now. That Constance chick, what a _bitch!" _The last part was yelled back at the spot we'd had to jump over to get away from the car.

_"_So where's the job go from here genius?" Sam asked, looking at his mud covered brother, Dean slammed the hood of the car down, and they both settled against it. Dean threw his arms up in frustration, flicking more mud off his hands.

Sam sniffed, bringing attention to what I'd been trying to ignore. Dean threw a questioning look at me, and I shrugged.

"You smell like a toilet." Sam stated, deadpan. Dean looked down.

"Looks like Hector needs a bath," he grinned at me. I laughed, time to find a motel.

* * *

**Motel**

Dean was waiting in the car, still covered in mud. I'd insisted. I grabbed his VersaBank MasterCard from his wallet and headed into the reception of the motel lobby, Sam hot on my heels. A night clerk was at the desk, reading through the ledger. I flicked the credit card down on top of it, and smiled.

"One room please." I said lightly.

The clerk picked up the card and looked at it, glancing up at me, then at Sam. I shrugged, "Hubby's paying." I nodded as way of explanation for the masculine name on the card. I made a mental note that I really needed to get my own card, just in case. It had never really seemed to be such a big deal, I was always with Dean. But after tonight, I was seeing how quickly things could change.

"You guys having a reunion or something?" The clerk asked.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked from behind me.

"I had another guy, Burt Aframian. He came and bought out a room for the whole month."

I looked back at Sam, raising an eyebrow. A break. Finally.

* * *

It only took Sam a few seconds to pick the lock to John's room. The motel door swung open and he stood, stepping into the room. Dean was playing look out, but he seemed a bit distracted. I gave him a little shove into the room, and stepped into the darkness, flipping a light switch as I closed the door.

"Whoa." Sam breathed, taking in the layout of the room. My eyes adjusted to the light and I stopped to look around. Every wall was covered in some kind of paper, be it newspaper clippings, maps, pictures, or John's familiar writing scribbled on post it notes. There were books sitting on the desk and pieces of junk littered the floor and bed. I reached for the light by the bed and turned it on, there was a half-eaten burger just sitting there, I sniffed and grimaced.

Sam stepped over a line of salt and I noticed a thin layer of dust covering all the surfaces.

"I don't think he's been here for a couple days at least." Dean said, voicing my own opinion.

Sam had bent down to the line of salt and seemed deep in thought, running the salt through his fingers.

"Salt, catseye shells... he was worried. Trying to keep something from coming up." He stated. I crossed my arms over my chest, fighting back the feeling of foreboding that I'd had a few days earlier when we'd heard John's voice on the message. I walked over to look at the papers covering the wall.

"What have you got there?" Dean asked, coming up behind me, his hands coming to rest on my shoulders, kneading the muscles in my neck. I relaxed into him, allowing his body to support me as I looked at the clippings.

"Centennial Highway victims" I answered, glancing at the headlines.

We took a moment to look over the photos in the articles.

"I don't get it," Dean started, "I mean, different men, different jobs -"

Sam walked up behind us, Dean continued.

"-ages, ethnicities. There's always a connection right? What do these guys have in common?" He paused his hands, now just resting them on my shoulders.

Sam was looking at the papers taped to other walls. I glanced over, moving away from Dean to join him. My eye caught a piece about the Bell Witch, two people being burned alive. A note simply stating _Mortis Danse _stuck to it. There was a column about _Devils + Demons, _more about _Sirens, Witches, the possessed." _A note in John's handwriting said _Woman in White, _it was stuck above a printout detailing Constance's suicide. Sam regarded this for a moment. He turned on the desk lamp, illuminating a sketch from an old book of a woman in a white dress, looking haggard, dark eyes staring at us as if looking into our very souls.

"Dad figured it out." He said finally. Dean turned to look at us both.

"He found the same article we did. Constance Welch. She's a woman in white." I answered.

Dean turned to appraise the photos of Constance's victims, a grin settling on his face. "You sly dogs." He muttered. He turned back to us.

"All right, so if we're dealing with a woman in white, Dad would have found the corpse and destroyed it." He said. I looked at him, pondering.

"She might have another weakness." I said.

"Well, Dad would want to make sure." Dean said, crossing the room to Sam. "He'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?"

"No, not that I can tell. If I were Dad, though, I'd go ask her husband." He tapped the picture of Joseph Welch pinned to the wall. The caption says he's thirty; the article dates to 1981, I did a quick calculation in my head. He would be 64 I thought ruefully.

"If he's still alive." I mused out loud. The boys turned to look at me.

"Only one way to find out," said Sam. I nodded.

"All right. Why don't you two, uh, see if you can find an address, I'm gonna get cleaned up." He said, heading for the bathroom door.

Sam turned to regard his brother. "Hey, Dean?" He called out. Dean stopped before the door, turning back.

"What I said earlier, about Mom and Dad, I'm sorry." He apologised, holding his arms slightly out from him. Dean held up a hand to him, glancing at me, then back at Sam.

"No chick-flick moments." He said. Sam laughed and nodded. I stifled a laugh.

"All right. Jerk." Sam retorted.

"Bitch." Dean smirked.

Sam laughed again as Dean disappeared into the bathroom.

"I dunno how you put up with him." He mused to me, I raised an eyebrow. The door to the bathroom opened briefly, Dean stuck his head out, already half undressed, his muddy chest bare. He caught my eye with grin.

"Catch!" He said, tossing something at me before closing the door again. I reacted instinctively, looking down at my hands. His muddy leather jacket. I turned it over in my hands, studying it, before looking up at Sam.

"Must be love." I quipped, before heading toward the bathroom myself. I'd need water from the sink, and a wash cloth.

Sam laughed, then something caught his eye. I watched as his smile disappeared, and looked past him to what had caught his attention. A rosary hung from the room's only mirror - it was identical to mine. Stuck into the frame of the mirror was a familiar photo. I knew it without even having to look at it up close. It was of John, sitting on the hood of the Impala, a much younger Dean next to him wearing a baseball cap, Sam, just a young boy, maybe 7 or 8 sat on John's lap. Next to it was a more recent one, taken on my eighteenth birthday - it showed John standing behind me, arms around my shoulders in a hug, Dean was looking all thoughtful on one side of us and Sam was smiling on the other side. Sam took the photos off the mirror, holding them in his hands. I sighed softly as a look of sadness crossed his face, despite the smile. It was good to have Sam back, but I wondered what cost it was taking on the man who was just a few years younger than me. He reached out and handed me the rosary and photo of us all together.

"Why would he leave these?" He asked, I shrugged, taking a look at the rosary before slipping it into my pocket. I dismissed it from my mind and opened the bathroom door to a suggestive comment from Dean who was in the shower, washing away all trace of his late night swim in the river.

* * *

**Motel Room  
Next Morning**

Sam was pacing in the motel room, holding his phone. With a sigh he sat down on the bed listening to a voicemail message. I was sitting on the bed, back to the headboard, wiping the remaining mud from Dean's jacket that I'd missed last night and drying it off with a towel . The sound of the shower had stopped a few minutes ago, Dean would be towelling off, refreshed and ready to go for the second time in twelve hours. My stomach rumbled and Sam turned to me with a chuckle while still listening to the voicemail message. I shrugged. I was hungry. _Hurry up Dean._

Dean came out of the bathroom, clean again, and I tossed him the jacket without a word. He smiled at me in thanks. "See, there is a reason I keep you around!" He taunted. I raised an eyebrow but didn't respond.

"Hey guys, I'm starving, let's grab a little something to eat at that diner down the street." He said, coming to tower over me. I was relieved to hear of the food, and went to push myself up off the bed, stars suddenly coming into my eyes. I shook my head and slumped back into the pillows. Dean, suddenly concerned knelt down next to me, looking into my eyes.

"What's wrong?" He asked, hands gently cradling my face, soft and tender – so unlike the shell he showed to the world. Sam turned to look, now also concerned.

"Nothing." I said, trying to sit up. He forced me back to the position I'd been in.

"Liar." He accused. "What's wrong? Headache? Fever?" He asked, holding his hand over my forehead. I shook my head weakly, but it only made the dizziness worse.

"Dizzy..." He said knowingly. I'd been like this since New Orleans. It was why he'd wanted to bring Sam along on this trip. It came and went, some kind of side effect from having taken the brunt of whatever voo doo energy attack had been sent our way. He looked at me expectantly, I nodded weakly, a sigh coming from my lips.

"Dammit" Dean whispered.

"I'm just hungry." I offered, lamely. The look in his eyes told me he didn't buy it for a minute, but he knew better than to argue too much with me. He knew I was as stubborn as him, maybe more so, when it came to babying me.

"Just grab me some soup from the diner maybe?" I asked, smiling at him, stroking a finger along his face. He paused, considering, and then nodded.

"You rest." He said, kissing my forehead before standing up.

Sam was staring at us, taking it all in, he wasn't used to seeing his brother in this way, all hard on the outside but with a soft centre willing to nurture someone, least of all with me. When he'd left for college we'd been hot and cold with each other, angst-driven in one moment, hiding our secret little moments of affection, and at each other's throats the next. As teenagers John had kept a short leash on all of us, and it had taken Dean and me a long time to get to a place where we were able to admit our feelings for each other, let alone act on them. It finally happened around the time Sam had walked out. Something about Sam going had triggered a reaction in Dean and I, coupled with another situation we didn't talk about, where we started to be a tiny bit more rebellious toward John. Just a little. Enough to make a big change in our lives.

Sam threw me a look that said he was waiting for an explanation that I'd have to give him as soon as we were alone. Dean left the motel room with a quick glance back at me, I offered a little wave and smile, he nodded and closed the door. I closed my eyes for a moment, welcoming the darkness for a change, sighing.

Sam's ear was still plastered to his phone, listening to the message playing. Suddenly he looked at the phone, pressed a button and put it back to his ear.

"What?" He asked. I sat up, curious.

There was a silence as the person on the other end of the phone spoke briefly. My attention was drawn to the scene unfolding outside the front of the hotel room, catching a glimpse of Dean through the curtains, there were deputies approaching him. Sam stood up at the same time as I struggled to my feet, still talking on the phone.

"What about you?" He asked. It was then I noticed Dean was also on his phone, it was him talking to Sam.

Dean hung up at the same time as Sam, we both stood frozen in place, looking out the window at Dean as he shrugged at the officers. There was a brief exchange between them, they glanced up at the window and we stepped back into the shadows, Sam's hand on my arm, steadying me.

There was an officer headed our way. Sam was grabbing a couple of things, but my head was spinning, I couldn't concentrate, the dizziness coming back. Outside, I saw Dean being slammed over the hood of the cop car, the deputy was cuffing him. This brought me back into my body with a gasp.

"Time to go." Sam said, pulling me to the back of the room where he'd opened the other window. Without a backward glance, I crawled over the sill, jumping into the back alley. Sam followed and took my hand with a concerned look. I nodded that I was ok, and together we started running down the alley, away from Dean.

* * *

**Welch House**

Sam and I were standing in front of a grimy old building, the paint was peeling from the door in front of us and I looked around at all the rusted junk in the yard. Scrap yards. Seems like we're always finding our way to places like this. _Just once, _I mused to myself, _it'd be nice to end up in Beverley Hills or something nice. _I shook my head, trying to clear my mind from the dizziness earlier. It had passed for now, but I was still feeling weary. Sam rapped a couple of times on the window and an older man appeared, looking at us through the chain link covering the window. I recognised the man as Joseph Welch from his photo. He was much older, but it was definitely him. He opened the door, peering out at us.

"Hi, are you Joseph Welch?" Sam asked as a formality.

"Yeah," the man confirmed.

"Mind if we take a walk? I just have a couple of questions I'd like to ask you." The man looked at us both, then shrugged and stepped out into the sun.

"What's this all about?" He asked, leading us out into the junk yard.

"Do you recognise this man?" Sam asked, holding up the photo from the motel room.

"We believe he might have called on you not long ago." I said, moving to stand next to Sam. Joseph took a moment to look at it, then nodded slowly.

"Yeah, he was older, but that's him. He came by three or four days ago. Said he was a reporter." Joseph replied.

"That's right. We're working on a story together." Sam said.

"Well, I don't know what the hell kinda story you're working on. The questions he asked me?" He paused to shake his head, looking forward but still walking.

"About your wife Constance?" I asked without meeting a beat.

"He asked me where she was buried," Joseph said, looking at me.

"And where is that again?" Sam asked.

Joseph frowned, "What, I gotta go through this twice?" He was looking at us suspiciously, couldn't say that I blamed him.

"It's fact-checking." I said, resting a hand on his arm. "I hope you don't mind." Smiling up at him.

"In a plot." Joseph answered. "Behind my old place over on Breckenbridge."

"And why did you move?" Sam asked. We all slowed to a standstill.

"I'm not gonna live in the house where my children died." Joseph said, a sadness passing behind his eyes.

"Mr Welch," I ventured. "Did you ever remarry?"

"No way. Constance, she was the love of my life. Prettiest woman I ever known." Came the reply. _Not pretty enough, _I thought to myself ruefully.

"So you had a happy marriage?" I asked, looking him deep in the eyes. I saw a flash of something there, guilt perhaps. Joseph hesitated to answer my question. _Maybe not so happy, _I thought to myself.

"Definitely." Was the answer he gave. _Liar. _I glanced at Sam. He seemed lost in his own thoughts.

"Well that should do it. Thanks for your time." Sam said, turning back toward the Impala. I hesitated, staring at Sam's back retreating from where we'd been talking.

"Mr Welch, did you ever hear of a woman in white?" I asked on a hunch. The look on his face told me outright that he had no idea what I was talking about.

"A what?"

"A woman in white, or sometimes a weeping woman." I continued. "It's a ghost story, well really, it's more of a phenomenon really." I stopped. And just where was I going with this?

Joseph just looked at me, not comprehending the question. Sam started back to me at this new line of questioning.

"Um, they're spirits." Sam interjected. "They've been sighted for hundreds of years, dozens of places, in Hawaii, Mexico, lately Arizona, Indiana." He came back to stand in front of Joseph.

"All these are different women you must understand, but all share the same story." I continued, reflecting on stories. Joseph's eyes took on a guarded look, and he stepped back from us, his eyes going from Sam to me.

"I don't care much for nonsense." Joseph said, turning on his heel, walking away.

"See when they were alive, their husbands were unfaithful to them," Sam pushed. "These women, basically suffering from temporary insanity..."

"Murdered their children." I called out, finishing the sentence. This got his attention. He turned to face us, the shadows of the past seemed to flicker behind his eyes. I could see the regret, the torment sitting there.

"Once they realised what they had done, they took their own lives. So now their spirits are cursed, walking back roads, waterways. And if they find an unfaithful man, they kill him. And that man is never seen again." Sam finished.

"You think... you think that has something to do with Constance? You smartass!" Joseph growled at us.

"You tell us." I said softly.

Joseph looked at Sam, as if sizing him up, but we'd gotten to him.

"I mean, maybe...maybe I made some mistakes. But no matter what I did, Constance, she never would have killed her own children. Now, you get the hell out of here! And you don't come back!"

Joseph's face was shaking, lips quivering as he fought down emotion. He looked at Sam for a long moment and then stalked away. Sam turned to me with a sigh.

"That went well," I grinned. Sam's mouth turned slightly up in a half smile before looking up to survey our surroundings, the sun was starting to set, it would be night soon, and there was the issue of Dean to consider.

* * *

**Motel Room**

Sam and I were waiting out the day in another motel, the Impala parked behind the building where it couldn't be seen from the road. I was eating a sandwich I'd managed to convince the owner to make me for a fistful of dollars. I was famished. It seemed to do a lot for my mood, and I could feel that encroaching darkness get pushed back at bay for a moment.

"So, Beth... " Sam started carefully. "You and Dean?"

I raised an eyebrow, "Like you didn't expect that one Sammy." I laughed. Sam joined in with the laugh, it felt good to hear it echo in the room. I looked him in the eyes, my little brother of sorts, but more than that. My guardian, my protector, my friend, when we'd been teens. Only a couple of years separated us in age, but I felt as if I was a decade older than this wide-eyed not-so-innocent boy in front of me. He'd gotten out early, to go to college, and it seemed to have removed some of the jaded feelings Dean and I carried around.

"Well, yeah - you guys were always kind of hot and cold with each other, but Dad...he..."

"... would never approve." I finished for him. He nodded. His eyes said it all, their Dad had taken me in as a daughter, he had been very clear about his group of horny teenagers not getting involved. I sighed.

"It was the night of my 21st, well, sort of - you know, after you left us for Stanford," I said. Sam nodded. "But nothing really got serious for a month or so because we were actually fighting over what happened with you. Maybe a month after you left for college. We were in Kittanning, Pennsylvania to deal with a poltergeist, simple enough job. Dad left us at the house and went out to do some routine questioning." I paused, recalling the clear summer day, how the heat had hung suspended in the empty rooms of the house. I recounted that fateful day to Sam, speaking as if we were right there.

* * *

**Kittanning, Pennsylvania**_**  
3 years ago**_

_Dean and I had been fighting, again. I'd been furious with him over whatever it was he'd said, something about not being up for the job and too distracted by Sam being gone, and then he'd implied I was letting my emotions run away with me. I'd gone to punch him. He'd flipped me over his shoulder and I'd landed painfully on my back against the tiles underneath our feet. I lay there, starting up at him, winded and a pain shooting along my side._

_I was hurt, but I wasn't going to let him know. I struggled to my feet, hurting, not just a blow to my body, but my pride too. I never thought Dean would hurt me, especially after how close we'd gotten in the last month or two. _

_I glared at him as I got to my feet and he hesitated, reaching out for me. "Oh Beth..," he said, his eyes looking worried and apologetic. I just shook my head and stormed upstairs. Dean started to follow and as I reached the first landing I turned on him, holding my hand up._

_"Just... don't, Dean. Just don't. Leave me alone." I said loudly and backed away running the rest of the way up to the second floor. Dean watched me, arms crossed as I walked along the open plan hallway at the top. _

_"Come on, Beth! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you." Dean called out to me and I stopped, looking down at him._

_"You know, if you don't think I'm any good to do this job, maybe I should just leave. Maybe I should do a Sammy, and cut and run!" He flinched when I said it and I wanted to take it back immediately, but I was too upset, and I just started walking toward the back of the house. _

_Suddenly I felt myself lifted in the air, and winded, like someone had socked the air out of me. I gasped and it caught Dean's attention. His eyes panicked when he saw me lifted up and then I was hurled backwards toward the window at the end of the open hallway. I felt the sharp cuts as slivers of glass sliced through me. I fell so quickly, all I had time to realise was that something broke my fall and then I was on the ground, some twenty feet away._

_I rolled to my side crying out in pain, and then I reached down to find a broken off piece of timber jammed into my left side. I held it, wanting to pull it out, but I couldn't do it. _

_Dean was at my side within minutes, his eyes full of distress and panic._

_"Beth!" He said as he reached my side. "Oh, Beth... you're gonna be ok. You'll be ok." He said, looking me over. I tried to move but my shoulder was dislocated, I moaned into his side as he pulled me off the ground slightly, holding me in his arms, half laying half sitting in his lap, my head against his chest._

_"Ahhh, god, Dean pull it out!" I groaned touching the piece of wood. He looked down and went pale._

_"No, no leave it in. Just in case," he said, pulling a cloth out of his jacket pocket. He packed it around the wood, pressing it firmly to staunch the blood flow and I groaned._

_Dean cradled my head against him, his hand lifting my chin up, his eyes only inches from mine. I tried to take in a deep breath only to have it turn to a coughing fit._

_"Beth... Beth..." He whispered, his voice frighteningly panicked. _

_"I'm sorry..." I coughed, "I didn't mean it..." _

_"Stop, forget it, I'm an ass." Dean said to me, kissing me on the forehead. _

_"Dean..." I had sought out his eyes. I thought I was dying, and be damned if I was going to die without saying it to him, just once. "...I love you." I whispered softly. His eyes widened at this declaration, and I closed my eyes against the pain, against any possible rejection. I'd said it, I didn't care, I was dying anyway. _

_"You're not dying." Dean said, as if reading my mind. I answered with another coughing fit._

_"You can't," He continued. "You can't leave me Beth." I opened my eyes and looked at him, tears in my eyes._

_He grinned. "Who else is going to call me on all my bullshit?" He shrugged, but his eyes said it too. _I love you too.

_He lay down beside me, taking me gingerly into his arms, forehead pressed against mine, our lips hovering over each other. _

_"Dad's on his way." Dean promised. I lay there, taking in his warmth, not entirely sure I wasn't dying, or maybe I had died and this was God's idea of Heaven. I don't know how long we lay there, it may have only been a matter of minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. I was fighting to stay conscious as Dean talked to me about whatever came to mind, trying to keep me positive as I shivered, freezing from the blood loss. I didn't want to move._

_The quiet of the afternoon was interrupted by John's truck roaring up the driveway to the house. In that moment there was a vulnerability in Dean's eyes as he looked in to mine. "Everyone I love leaves me." He said quietly._

_"Not everyone." I whispered._

_"Promise?" He asked, serious for the first time in a long while._

_"I promise."_

* * *

**Motel Room  
_Present Day_**

My thoughts came back to the present moment, sighing at how it seemed a lifetime ago. Sam had grimaced when I'd recounted what I'd said to Dean, my comment about him, but he was listening without saying a word, giving me the space to continue.

"I never saw it coming." I said, looking him in the eyes. "The poltergeist, just lifted me in the air, and this... presence... of pure evil washed over me. I hadn't felt that... well since, you know." I left it unspoken, but the implication was there. _Since, the demon. _Sam nodded his understanding, grasping my hand in his and giving it a squeeze. I sighed.

"It picked me up as if I were nothing more than a ragdoll, and threw me out the second storey window." Sam flinched, visualising me being thrown to my death.

"A garden shed broke my fall, or I might not even be here." I continued. "Dean watched it all, I'd been on the upstairs landing. He was following me and I'd screamed at him to leave me alone." I closed my eyes.

"Dad got back to find me twenty feet from the house, concussed, bleeding, couple of broken ribs, dislocated shoulder where I'd hit the shed, skewered by a wooden pole, or something. I could barely breathe. Dean wouldn't leave my side, I've never seen him so worried." I smiled, reliving the memory.

I had left the last bit out, it was such a vulnerable moment for us, it didn't need to be voiced. Sam was looking thoughtful, taking in everything I'd said.

"Dad must have been freaked..." he said quietly.

"It was like something changed in him after that Sam. Something I had never seen in him. He'd always been so hard on us all, still is, with Dean; probably always will be. But something about you leaving, wanting a normal life, then seeing me like that. It hit him hard. He started to see the lives we'd all given up for hunting. One night he told me he felt that he'd failed my Dad, failed me, bringing me into this life with you all..."

* * *

**New Kensington  
_3 years ago_**

_It had been only a few weeks since the poltergeist, I was still sore but healing, we'd taken a week to rest, and John had hit the bottle hard. Years of regret and unspoken words lingered in the motel room we'd stayed in, and he was fighting his emotions around another issue too, one he didn't want to talk about. One night I'd woken up from a bad dream, it had just gone midnight. Dean, who had started the night off on the couch, had crawled into bed beside me once John fell asleep. His arm was wrapped protectively around me as he slept, a serene look on his face that you only ever saw when he was unconscious. I glanced over to our left, John's bed was empty. I sighed – Dean had only done this a couple of times since Kittanning, always careful to be up before John was in the morning - it wasn't unusual for us to share a bed, brother and sister way, I always used to with Sam before he went to college, but to have Dean wrapped around me, that was new and John would know something was going on. I decided to get some fresh air, and look for John, to try and explain away the embrace he would have seen us in._

_The Impala was parked outside the motel room, Dean and I had taken to driving it around more and more. John had his truck too, sometimes we travelled together, sometimes we went in separate cars to work the same job - depended how frustrated we were with each other at the time. I had a motorbike too, but I hadn't ridden it much since Sam left, Dean found it too lonely in the Impala on his own. I slipped outside and there he was, sitting on the trunk, a beer hanging loosely from his fingertips as he sat hunched over, a defeated slump to his shoulders. Even though I'd been quiet, he'd heard me, there was no sneaking up on John Winchester. He turned his head slightly to indicate he knew I was there and I shrugged into my jacket, pushing myself up on the trunk next to him, leaning comfortably against his side with a smile._

_"I never wanted this life for them." He said quietly. I looked down at my hands, clasped in my lap._

_"I know." I whispered, "They know that too." _

_"Do they?" He asked, staring up at the stars. "And you, what kind of life did your Dad want for you? Have I let him down, bringing you with us?" _

_I shook my head. "You did what had to be done. Lord knows it wasn't easy for you, you already had two boys... you didn't need a daughter to complicate the situation..." _

_He smiled, placing a hand on my knee, patting it a couple of times. __"I always wanted a daughter." He smiled sadly. "So did Mary." __I smiled back at him. _

_"Do you ever want something else? Like Sam?" He asked quietly, looking down at the ground again. _

_"No." I said, not even hesitating. He looked up, surprise behind his eyes. __"My place is here with you, and Dean." I said simply. "I want no other life." _

_He paused, glancing back at the door to the motel room. He was thinking. I stared up at the stars taking in their sparkling splendour. A comfortable silence filled the night's air __as we leaned against each other, giving the other support._

_"You're a grown woman now Beth." He said, smiling. "I'm proud of you, of who you've become."_

_"Thanks." I smiled back at him. Such declarations were rare from John. Dean never got them._

_"Dean..." This got my attention. I tried to hide it, I knew it had been coming. _

_"He's not your brother, you know that right?" He said. _

_I nodded. _

_"I know..." I said, I wasn't a Winchester, I never would be. I sighed sadly. _

_"No..." John said, "No, I didn't mean it that way Beth." He said. I looked at him quizzically, not understanding what he was getting at. He blew out a breath and slid from the trunk of the car, standing to face me. He put the beer on the trunk and took my hands in his. _

_"You will _always _be my daughter Beth. Nothing will change that. But Dean... he's _not your brother." _I paused, taking this in. Was he serious?_

_"__I'm not blind Beth. I see how you both feel about each other. I won't say I'm not concerned, but only because I don't want either of you to get hurt. When you were teenagers... well hormones take over. But now, I've seen you both grow with each other, and you've both done your best to live by my rules on it." He paused and I held my breath, not knowing what to say._

_"You've both sacrificed a normal life to this world. The least I can do is not stand in the way of what little comfort you can find in each other." He finished. My jaw felt like it had hit the floor and he chuckled, those dimples forming in his cheeks as he looked at me, a sparkle in his eyes. I did have to wonder how much of this new attitude was based on his own new relationship - the one Dean was in denial about and we didn't discuss. I decided now wasn't the time to bring it up, I'd just had the best news I'd heard in years._

_"Just don't go all mushy lovesick on me … the pair of you have to be able to do your jobs!" He warned. I nodded and grabbed him in a big hug, tears threatening to fall out of my eyes. I grimaced as my shoulder twinged at the action, but I wasn't letting him go. _

_"Thanks Dad." I kissed him on the cheek. He smiled at the name, I don't know when I'd started using it, but he'd never told me not to, the boys thought it was great, it made us a family, and that's exactly what we were. __He helped me down from the car and we moved back into the motel room. Dean woke with a start as we entered. _

_"Huh? What?" __ He muttered, t_hen his eyes widened as he caught sight of John standing by the side of the bed. "Dad!" He was clearly searching for an excuse to explain why he was in my bed, busted, and started to sit up only to have _John push him back down on to the pillow._

_"Go back to sleep Dean." John said simply, then shrugging out of his jacket, John climbed into his own bed turning his back to us and covering himself with the blankets. _

_Dean was half sitting up still, looking back and forth to John and then me. He frowned, clearly unsure at what had just transpired. I dropped my own jacket to the floor with a thud, and slipped under the covers, wrapping my arms around Dean as I put my head on his chest, allowing his warmth to seep into me._

_"Go back to sleep Dean." I echoed John's words, closing my eyes, sleeping coming swiftly to claim me._

_"What the hell..." Dean muttered to himself, but he relaxed, his arm coming around me to hold me close to him, his lips resting against the top of my head._

* * *

**Motel Room  
_Present Day_**

"Wow." Sam said. "You never told me". I shrugged, I had no answer for that. I'd been happy for Sam when he left, I really had been - just not the circumstances, there'd been a massive fight that split us all into polarities - those of the family and extended family who supported Sam's decision - and those of us who didn't. There had been a sadness in knowing that our little family was broken because of it. It had taken a long time for me to reach out and contact him. He smiled a little apologetically at me, I knew he was probably feeling guilt over not having been there to help. I squeezed his hand to let him know I was all right.

"And New Orleans?" He asked.

I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly.

"New Orleans... we were following some report of zombies, if you can believe it. Didn't find anything, but did stumble across some bad voo doo going on with a witch doctor. We got caught up in a confrontation and next thing I know I'm blinded by this light and an … energy...I don't know how else to explain it, hit me, knocking me to the ground, clear unconscious. Dean got me back to the motel, and I was sick, really sick, for days. It felt like I was being eaten up from the inside. Dean couldn't find anyone to help, they steered clear of us, so we just waited it out until he could get me in the car, then we started looking for Dad. I'm mostly over it, but I just get these moments of weakness, dizzy, like I'm going to pass out. _I'm no good to Dean if I can't back him up Sam_." The last sentence was frustrated and angry, my hands balled against my legs.

"Hey, hey, Beth, you'll figure it out. Likely it'll just pass as time does." Sam said comfortingly. I smiled.

"I hope you're right."

* * *

**Outside the Motel**

"You're sure about this?" Sam asked again, for the third time.

"Yeah, we've already lost too much daylight. I hate digging up graves in the dark, you know that." Sam chuckled, that was about the only time we did dig up graves. Too many chances of being seen otherwise. But he wasn't going to argue with me, the sun was creeping down under the horizon as we talked. It would be dark soon enough anyway.

Sam nodded, giving me a long look, as if sizing up my ability to stay upright on the motorcycle I had 'commandeered' for the next couple of hours. I was suddenly overtaken by a whim, I just went with it. I grabbed his hands, and taking my rosary from around my neck, I wrapped it around his wrist. He looked at me in surprise, he'd never seen me without it. I shrugged, I couldn't say why, I just felt he should have it.

"I'm fine. Go, I'll be right behind you." I said to him with a nod.

Sam nodded again and then went to the Impala, sliding in to the front seat he sent me one final look before driving off toward the outskirts of town. I slid a helmet on over my head and started the bike up, the familiar hum of the engine settling between my thighs. I loved to ride, never seemed to get much of a chance when it was just Dean and I on the road – my own bike, a '74 Moto Guzzi V7 Eldorado was in a storage unit in Idaho, we'd last left it when we went to New Orleans, and I hadn't collected it yet. I eased out the throttle and got my balance, testing out the pick up of the bike before zipping around the corner, looking for my destination.

He was already slinking out of the police station, phone up to one ear, _talking to Sam _I assumed.

"Fake 911 phone call? Sammy, I don't know, that's pretty illegal." I picked up him saying as I eased up next to him, removing the helmet to let my long hair fall down my back.

"Need a ride?" I raised my eyebrow at him. He gave me an approving look and grinned back.

"Yes ma'am." He answered with a smile. I threw him a helmet of his own and he deftly caught it one-handed, still on the phone.

"Well, that's what I'm trying to tell you. He's gone. Dad left Jericho." He said for both our benefits. I could almost hear Sam's questions over the phone.

"I've got his journal." Dean replied, tapping his chest where something bulged under his jacket.

"He doesn't go anywhere without that thing." I said, frowning.

"Yeah, well, he did this time." Dean replied to me. I frowned, he'd left the photos, the rosary, the journal... what was going on?

"What's it say?" I heard Sam's voice over the phone asking the same thing as me.

"Ah, the same old ex-Marine crap, when he wants to let us know where he's going." Dean replied. _ Co-ordinates_. I sighed.

"I don't know where to yet." Dean said to the unspoken conclusion. I started to voice my next question when Dean's facial expression changed.

"Sam? Sam!" He called into the phone. Nothing. Something was wrong. We pulled our helmets on simultaneously, as Dean swung his leg over the bike to sit behind me. His hands relieved me of the shotgun at my back, before holding on to my waist. I kicked the bike into gear and without a spoken word we were on our way to Sam.

I knew where to go, I'd looked at the maps, knew this was where Sam had been headed. The Breckenridge Road Farm where Constance Welch was buried. It only took us a few minutes to get there, I'd been speeding, but no one was going to catch us.

* * *

**Breckenridge Farm**

It was dark but the lights from the Impala led us to Sam. We ditched the bike away from the car, hoping to get the drop on whatever was going on with Sam. Dean tossed me the shotgun, then started to sneak up on the car, going for the trunk and the other weapons.

There was a struggle going on in the front of the car. Sam was talking to someone we couldn't see. Suddenly I heard Sam yell out in pain and I ran the remaining steps to the car. I could see her now, I saw a ghostly flicker on top of Sam, he swiped at her with the hand I'd tied my rosary around, she flickered at the unwelcome touch of iron against her incorporeal form. It gave me a moment to get to Sam and when she reappeared I took aim, not hesitating, and fired. The window shattered and Constance let out a ghastly scream before vanishing. She reappeared near me, outside of the car and I adjusted my aim and fired again, and again, until she disappeared.

Sam was struggling to sit up in the car, he'd ripped his hoodie open and there were red welts forming across his chest. Dean was digging in the car for his own shotgun when we both heard Sam mutter, "I'm taking you home!" What? The look on Dean's face was priceless as suddenly the Impala lurched forward, smashing through the side of the house. He took a moment to process what had just happened, and then I remembered, Sam was in the car! We took off at a run into the house.

"Sam? Sam? You okay?" Dean was calling out to his brother while I surveyed our surroundings, the shotgun resting comfortably at my shoulder, ready to be fired should it be needed. Sam was struggling to get out of the car.

"Can you move?" Dean was asking.

"Yeah," Sam replied. "Can you help me?"

Dean leaned through the window of the car, grabbing Sam's hand and pulling him toward the door and out of the car. I turned, white catching my eye. Constance was standing nearby, but her attention was on a broken picture frame on the floor. She picked it up, then spotting Dean and Sam she threw it down, stalking after them. I felt something slam into me, the force of the attack caused the shotgun to go sliding across the floor away from me. I was pinned to the wall behind me by a table. Dean and Sam were in a similar position, a bureau having pinned them to the car.

The lights flickered to life, Constance looked scared at this, and glanced around. Water began pouring down the staircase, it caught her attention and she walked over to where it was starting to flow into the room. At the top of the stairs were a little boy and girl, they joined hands and spoke in unison.

"You've come home to us Mommy."

Constance looked distraught, and started to move away, but they reappeared behind her, wrapping their arms around her as she screamed, her white light flickering as they held her. A pulse of energy surged through the room, causing the hair on my arms to stand up as I watched the three of them melt into a puddle before my very eyes. The items pinning us suddenly eased, and I pushed the table away so I could join the others.

"So this is where she drowned the kids." Dean said.

"That's why she could never go home. She was too scared to face them." Sam said, nodding.

"You found her weak spot. Nice work, Sammy." I laughed, and Dean patted him on the chest where he'd been injured. Sam laughed through the pain and raised an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah, I wish I could say the same for Beth. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?"

"Hey!" I chided playfully. "Saved your arse." Then I winked. Dean was busy looking over his car.

"I'll tell you one thing. If you screwed up my car?" Dean turned to look at Sam. "I'll kill you."

Sam laughed. The look Dean gave me said we were clearly going to be having words over shooting out his window. I shrugged, throwing him an apologetic look.

* * *

**A lonely highway**

I was in the back of the Impala again, lying on the back seat, eyes closed and listening to the music. I had Dean's jacket draped over me and for the moment I felt calm, content even.

"OK. So the coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge, Colorado." Sam informed us.

I opened my eyes long enough to see Dean nod.

"Sounds charming, how far?" He said.

"About 600 miles." Sam replied.

"Hey, if we shag ass, we could make it by morning." Dean was smiling at Sam.

Sam glanced at his brother, a hesitant look on his face. I closed my eyes again, the calm was about to be shattered.

"Dean, um, I..." Sam stuttered to get the words out. The words that would take him away from us again.

"You're not going." Dean said quietly.

"The interview's in like 10 hours. I gotta be there." Sam replied

I glanced up at Dean again, he nodded, clearly disappointed.

"Yeah. Yeah, whatever." He glanced at Sam again. "I'll take you home."

I sighed sadly, my heart was breaking for Dean, someone had to feel it for him, Lord knows he wouldn't let allow himself to feel it.

A handful of hours later we were in front of Sam's apartment building. I got out with Sam, pulling him into a big hug, hesitant to let him go. He squeezed me before releasing me and holding the door for me to slide into the seat he'd just vacated. Closing the door behind me, he leaned in the open window, his forearms resting on the window ledge.

"Call me if you find him?" He asked Dean.

Dean nodded, silent.

"And maybe I can meet up with you later, huh?" Sam offered, trying to keep things light, and to renew that friendship that had been strained for a while.

"Yeah, all right." Dean replied, his voice doubtful. Sam patted the door twice, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Take care of him Beth," he said to me.

I smiled over at Dean who rolled his eyes, "Oh I will. Stay safe Sam." Sam turned to go and Dean leaned across me to the window.

"Hey Sam?" He called out. Sam turned to look back at us.

"You know, we made a hell of a team back there." Dean said.

Sam smiled sadly. "Yeah, we did."

* * *

We were half way around the block when I realised I'd forgotten it. My rosary.

"Dean! We have to go back!" He looked at me confused. "My rosary, I loaned it to Sam, and I forgot it."

"Jesus Beth, what is it with you and that damn thing?" Dean growled, but he was teasing, he knew it had been a gift from my father, I just hadn't realised how important it was at the time.

Dean pulled the car around, circling the block to where we'd come from. We were coming up on the apartment when we both saw it. Fire!

"What the...?" Dean's question died on his lips. It was Sam's apartment! In an instant we were both out of the car, racing toward the apartment. Dean got ahead of me and I watched as he deftly kicked the door in only to recoil at the heat spilling out of the building.

"Sam! Sam!" Dean ran into the building.

"Dean no!" I called out, clutching at the door frame.

"Sam!" I heard Dean calling out as he stumbled into the burning building. In just seconds, but what seemed an age, I could see them, Dean was pulling Sam out of the bedroom. Sam was struggling all the way. He was screaming for Jess, and I realised that the girl had been in the inferno. I grabbed Sam by the arm as they reached the door, all of us stumbling out into the night's air. Sirens already pierced the quiet of the evening as they raced toward us.

"Jess..." Sam was mumbling to himself, I had my arms wrapped around him, holding him close so he couldn't run back into the building.

An hour later I was sitting on the pavement by the Impala, picking at the grass beside me. Dean was watching the busy scene behind us of fire trucks, firemen, police and a handful of spectators wanting to see what was going on. As he turned back I followed his gaze to where Sam was standing behind the open trunk, he was loading a shotgun. There was a resolute look in his eyes that chilled me. I'd seen it before, in Kittanning when John and Dean had gone back into the house to finish off the poltergeist that had nearly killed me. Unlike Dean though, Sam knew Jess was dead, his eyes held a quiet seething anger, tempered only by the sense of desperation I felt coming from him.

Sam looked up at us, sighing. Then, as if reaching a decision, he nodded and tossed the shotgun back in the trunk, slamming the door down with a thump.

"We got work to do." He declared.

* * *

**Author's Note: **_First episode down. Next is _Wendigo_ but I probably won't be doing all the episodes from all the series. Just the ones that take my fancy and where I can get a reasonable sort of story out of. Reviews appreciated, feedback. I hope you like Beth. I see a path unfolding for her as the key religious person in the group, she's likely going to be the one to call in Castiel, I think. Maybe. We'll see where things go. But she has faith, which I think is really important. _


	3. Stolen Moments

_**A/N Slight deviation off the storyline. This follows on from the story Beth told Sam in the last chapter, about how she and Dean gained John's blessing to start a relationship. You gotta wonder about how that would have gone, would they have all crashed in the same room for safety? Would he have given them some space? Was it the turning point to them going on their own jobs? I have decided that it would have been a bit of all of the above, John wouldn't have wanted to let them just run wild, his presence would ensure they keep their minds on the job, not on each other constantly. But he's human, even he wouldn't be blind to the tension that could cause. So as the story progresses, we'll see how he steps back to give the young couple some space, while still keeping them in line. But for now... this is the first sexual encounter for Dean and Beth, they haven't made it to full on intercourse yet, but little stolen moments make the waiting worth it.**_

* * *

**STOLEN MOMENTS**

* * *

_Beth's POV_

It had been a strange couple of days since John had given his blessing for us to be together. A mixed up tangle of hours where we could smile, and banter without fear of repercussion, yet we were careful not to overstep our boundaries – to not turn a wonderful thing into a negative.

Small moments of tenderness were snatched in the times in between planning. A touch here, a kiss there, a stare that went just a little deeper than it used to. Each night I was happy to crawl into bed with Dean and snuggle up, my head resting in the crook of his neck, my lips pressed against his skin, breathing in his scent.

Last night he'd lazily run his fingers along my arms, turning to kiss my forehead as we just lay in the moment, taking in each other. I found myself consumed with a need to touch him, to run my hand under his t-shirt, splaying it across his stomach, and stroking with a soft, teasing circle, relishing the sound of his breath quickening, his heart racing a little faster under my ear.

With a sigh, he'd slid down to face me, both of us on our sides, his hand on my hip, mine on his, staring into my eyes with a dark desire barely contained beneath the surface. Giving me cheeky grin, he'd slid his knee between my legs, pulling me close and gently grinding against my soft spot, and I had to close my eyes and bite my lip to keep from moaning.

"Two can play that game." He whispered to me, and I fought to keep my breathing steady as we leaned foreheads together, noses resting comfortably against the other. I kissed him softly, my tongue sliding over his lips and in to meet his tongue. His breathing was punctuated in short, soft bursts, but it would have been barely noticeable outside of the immediate vicinity of his mouth.

We lay this way for a long time, not moving, not trusting that we could control ourselves if we were to continue along this path. Dean's eyes flicked past me to the other bed where his father lay sleeping, and with a quiet sigh and an apologetic look he disentangled himself from me, sitting up in the bed and grimacing down at his lap. He pulled the sheets off him and stood up, it was plain to see his arousal in the soft light of the street lamp outside.

He'd leaned down to kiss me, whispering for me to get some sleep. Turning on his heel he stalked off to the bathroom and I heard the sound of the shower being turned on. I flipped on to my back with a sigh, the dull ache of my wound nothing compared to the ache between my legs. I tentatively slid my hand between my legs, the fabric of my panties was soaked with the hot wetness underneath.

I shot another glance at John and considered. He seemed dead to the world. My mind went to Dean and the shower the poor man was having to subject himself to. I thought about what he might be doing in there and my breath caught, I slid a finger through my folds against my clit, arching against my hand in response.

Closing my eyes I allowed myself the pleasure of my touch, gently, rhythmically stroking along my folds, across my clit. I was so caught up in the moment I failed to hear Dean return until the feeling of his weight on the mattress drew me out of my passion. I flushed, embarrassed, and withdrew my hand guiltily, looking away from his gaze.

He had on a simple pair of sweat pants, his chest bare and newly dried from his shower. I found myself losing all self-consciousness as I lost myself in imagining the feel of that chest against mine, close, melded... I took another deep breath and groaned internally. As if reading my mind, Dean reached down and picked up the t-shirt he'd discarded earlier, and pulled it back on, breaking the image from my mind.

"Thought I told you to get some sleep." Dean said quietly. Not whispering, and I saw him looking over at John, contemplating. Just how asleep was the older man?

"I'm not tired." I sighed, rolling on to my side, still facing him. He gave me a sympathetic smile and lay down to face me. With a raised eyebrow he rolled me on to my back, and then indicated for me to turn away from him. I frowned, feeling rejected and sad, but obliged. He surprised me when I felt the warm heat of his body slide in to spoon me, his strong arm reaching around to softly stroke across my stomach.

His breath was hot in my ear as he moved in close, and whispered.

"Maybe I can help with that."

I looked up in surprise, a question on my lips silenced as his lips claimed mine in a hungry kiss. I fought off a moan as his hand slid down my abdominals, stroking in lazy round circles, tantalising me, my skin felt so over sensitive at his touch but I urged him on moaning softly into his kisses, pressing my body back against his.

"Shhhh." He whispered again, a cheeky look in his eyes and he nodded silently at John, who had rolled on to his side with a grunt. I nodded quietly and resolved myself to our unique situation. He kissed me again and then turned my head back to face forward, he rubbed his cheek with a couple of days old stubble against my jawline, drawing a shaky breath out of me before blowing playfully on my shoulder. I shivered.

Suddenly getting serious, he pulled me in close to him. I could feel the hardness of his arousal, renewed, against my back, but he didn't move to pleasure himself. His right arm was underneath me, his hand coming up to cup my right breast through the thin fabric of my top, he was gently teasing my nipple through it as his left hand snaked down to just under my navel, just above where he so wanted to go.

He waited like this for a handful of moments, stilling our breathing, I found myself relaxing into him, my chest rising with his in long, deep breaths. I was beginning to drift off, probably would if not for that ache between my legs. I sighed softly, almost a moan, wriggling against his hand that was laid possessively against me.

Without any further teasing he slid his forefinger between my folds, finding my clit and circling it. I arched involuntarily against him, biting my lip hard to stifle any moan I might make. The need for quiet made it seem almost clandestine and more exciting.

He flicked his finger across my clit and then started to circle it, interchanging with long, full strokes down to my centre barely penetrating me, just circling the outer lips. I ground myself against his hand in a growing urgency. I couldn't moan to tell him to keep going, or what pace to take, so I used my body to let him know.

Dean seemed to understand what I was getting at, and he matched my pace, slipping another finger down to clasp my clit between them both, this shot an incredible pulse through my whole body and I gasped a little bit before biting my lip again. The pace quickening I felt the tingling between my legs, the tightening of my muscles as they started to spasm out of my control. I reached back behind me, grasping his buttock in my hand and pulling him against me, wanting so badly to be as close to him as possible.

He was grinding against me, pulling me to meld against his body as I bucked against him. It felt so good to have his hands on my body, to hold me against the throws of my beginning orgasm. With a final couple of thrusts against his hand I pulled in a few breaths, going so still as every sense between my legs vibed and pulsed, before exploding in a wash of energy. I shook, catching my breath, holding in the groans, spasming against my lover as he held me tight, his own breath coming in short, ragged breaths. He was just as turned on as I was.

I waited for the familiar afterglow to claim me, urging my body back into a state of relaxation. He held me close, kissing my neck and jawline. When I had relaxed he rolled me over, my head going back to the crook of his neck. I idly traced my hand along the blanket to his arousal, intending to relieve him as he had me, but he just took my hand in his with a small shake of his head.

"It's ok." He said. I looked at him, dismayed.

"It's late." He whispered, "and I already... well..." He looked toward the shower. I think I blushed at the thought.

"Not that I couldn't again.." He said suddenly as if to prove something and I almost laughed.

"But I'm ok." He smiled, kissing me again. "Get some sleep." He commanded, pulling me in close, and I closed my eyes, snuggling up with my hand over his heart, the deep rhythmic beat a comfort to me. I threw a leg over his, getting as close as I could without being uncomfortable, feeling the gentle rise and fall of his chest as sleep claimed us.


	4. Wendigo - updated 25aug13

**Updated 25 August 2013**

* * *

**WENDIGO**

* * *

**Impala**

I was riding shotgun in the Impala, window down with the wind blowing my hair away from my face. It'd been a week since the fire which had claimed Jessica's life. Sam had been quietly focused, a rage simmering beneath masking an even greater grief, guilt that he hadn't been able to save her.

Trees blurred before my eyes as Dean sped along the lonely highway. We'd finally given up the hunt for whatever had killed Jess and decided to resume the search for John. Blackwater Ridge in Colorado was our next destination. The feeling of something dark and menacing was sitting in my stomach again, it was starting to feel like an old shoe... worn, tired, and cold.

I shivered and rolled up the window, pulling my jacket tighter around me. Dean glanced over with my movement, his eyes had been glued to the road for the majority of the trip, all three of us lost in our own thoughts.

"You ok?" He asked, eyes meeting mine with a slight concern.

"Yeah." I said, attempting a half smile. I shuffled in my seat, moving a little closer to him, reaching my left hand out to softly brush my fingers through his hair, down his cheek. Just touching him calmed me, helped me put a tangible feeling to my life, instead of this foreboding that sat just out of reach. I was running my fingers back and forth along the collar of his jacket, enjoying the smooth texture of the leather.

He looked at me again, a slight frown creasing his forehead. "You sure?"

"Mmhmmm." I murmured with a nod. Turning back to the road, I looked down at the map that was still in my lap, gauging how far we were from Lost Creek, the town closest to Blackwater Ridge.

Sam startled awake in the back seat drawing our attention to him. Dean observed him with a quiet concern through the rearview mirror. I twisted in my seat, looking Sam in the eyes.

"You ok?" I asked. It seemed to be the question of the day.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sam muttered, squeezing the bridge of his nose with his fingertips. He shook his head and drew a long shaky breath. I threw him a look that told him I didn't quite believe him, it was also the answer of the day it seemed.

"Another nightmare?" I asked pointedly.

Sam nodded, but remained silent.

"You wanna drive for a while?" Dean asked out of the blue, causing both of us to give him a long, hard look of disbelief.

"What?" Dean asked, looking at us both. Sam laughed.

"Dean, your whole life you never once asked me that." Sam answered.

"Just thought you might want to. Never mind." Dean retorted. I smiled.

"Look, we're just worried about you Sam." I said, turning to face the back.

"I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly ok." Sam replied, looking anything but ok. Dean shook his head beside me and I patted him softly on his thigh.

"Well ok then, if you say so." I said in response to Sam, my tone anything except convinced.

"So... where are we?" Sam said, sitting forward and looking at the map on my lap. I glanced back down at the map again, frowning as I calculated our location.

"We are... just outside of Grand Junction." I replied, pointing to a section of the map. Dean had earlier marked the map with a big red X and written the coordinates 35-111 on it. That was our destination, the next piece to the puzzle. I found my stomach aflutter with the unknown, what would be waiting for us in Lost Creek? Would we find John? Would we finally get some answers to the questions we'd been asking for the last month?

Sam was looking pensive, staring at the map.

"Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon." He said quietly. I looked up at him, sympathy in my eyes.

"Sam, we dug around there for a week." Dean countered. "We came up with nothing. If we want to find the thing that killed Jessica -"

"We gotta find Dad first." Sam finished, nodding.

"Dad disappearing, and this … thing... showing up again after 20 years, it's no coincidence Sam." I said. Dean and I had been talking about it _a lot _while Sam had slept in the back seat. We were no closer to having any answers about it, but it helped to voice out loud our growing concerns. "Dad will have answers." I said to no one in particular.

"It's just weird," Sam said.

"What is?" I asked.

"These coordinates he left us," Sam said, waving a hand at the map. "There's nothing but woods there. Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere?"

I shrugged. I had no answers. None of us did, that's why we were on this wild goose chase in the first place.

* * *

**Ranger Station  
Lost Creek National Park**

I was conscious of the weight of my chin against my hand as I crossed my arms, resting my right elbow in my left hand, my chin in my right hand. I was staring at a 3D map of the national forest with Sam. Reaching out with his hand, Sam pointed to a section of the map labelled Blackwater Ridge.

"It's pretty remote." I frowned, looking at our access points. Sam nodded in agreement.

"It's cut off by these canyons here," Sam moved his hand to indicate the areas he was talking about, "rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place." He rested his hands against the side of the table holding the map, and let out a long, deep breath.

Dean was behind us, looking at the miscellaneous tourist attractions in the ranger station. He was standing in front of an old photograph on the wall.

"Dude, check out the size of this freaking bear!" He said in awe.

Sam looked up at him with a look of frustration – we both wandered over to join Dean in looking at the photo. "And a dozen or so grizzlies in the area. It's no nature walk, that's for sure."

"You lot aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" A voice sounded behind us. I jumped, startled, I hadn't heard him approach. Sam and Dean were also looking startled, we were definitely out of sorts. The man in front of us was one of the local rangers, he wasn't a tall man, maybe my height, thin and wiry looking – the leathery skin of a man who had spent the majority of his life in the outdoors. He had the stance of someone who didn't take shit from anyone, a cup of coffee in his right hand, his left hand on his hip.

"Oh, no, sir, we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper." Sam responded quickly with our cover story.

"Recycle man!" Dean said, raising a fist in the air. Sam laughed a little nervously at the comment. I just shook my head.

"Bull," the ranger accused us.

I flicked my eyes to Sam and Dean who weren't moving, we hadn't really thought past our cover story.

"You're friends with that Haley girl, right?" He said, before we could come up with a response.

Dean paused, considering our options.

"Yes, yes we are... Ranger..." He leaned forward to look at the man's nametag. "Wilkinson."

The old man look at us patiently. I imagined he was used to having these kinds of discussions a lot with gung-ho hikers who thought they wanted a challenge, but didn't really understand the risks.

"Well I'll tell you exactly what we told her. Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the 24th, so it's not exactly a missing persons now, is it?" He took another sip of his coffee, letting us digest this information.

Dean shook his head.

"You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine."

Dean was nodding again. "We will. Well that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?" He laughed.

"That is putting it mildly," the ranger concurred.

"Actually you know what would help is if we could show her a copy of that permit. You know, so she could see her brothers return date for herself." Dean said.

The ranger eyed Dean suspiciously, who raised his eyebrows, putting on his innocent "trust me" face. Moments later we were walking back to the Impala, Dean was laughing and waving the permit in his hand like he'd just gotten a backstage all-access pass to _Showgirls_.

"Why are we even worrying about talking to this girl?" Sam was saying, a frown on his face. "I mean, we have the coordinates, they point to Blackwater Ridge, what are we waiting for? Let's just go find Dad!"

I stopped by the car, leaning against it, my arms crossed. Sam looked flustered and in a hurry, it was very uncharacteristic of him. Dean walked around to the driver's side of the car and looked back at us across the top.

"I don't know, maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?" He said, shrugging, staring at Sam. We all paused.

"What?" Sam said finally.

"Since when are you all shoot first, ask questions later?" I asked Sam, raising an eyebrow.

"Since now." Sam said quietly, opening the back door and getting in.

"Really?" Dean asked, following suit. I had grimaced at the thought that I had two leap-before-you-look guys I was travelling with now. Surely it couldn't bode well.

* * *

**Collins House**

The door was opened by a short, attractive girl, lucky to be 20 years old. She had on a tight brown sleeveless top that clung to all the right places. Tanned skin, shoulder-length brown curls, suspicious brown eyes. She looked like she knew what she was doing, a take charge kind of woman. I liked that.

"You must be Haley Collins." I said, Dean and Sam standing behind me. "I'm Beth, this is Dean and Sam." I gestured to each man as I mentioned their name. "We're rangers with the Park Service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. He wanted us to ask a few questions about your brother Tommy." I'd tied my hair back in a ponytail, looking a little more sporty with my black t-shirt and black cargo pants. We might not really look ranger-like, but hopefully we could pass off the lie.

Haley hesitated, then nodded. "Let me see some ID."

I pulled out a fake ID with the name "Elizabeth Cole" and held it up to the screen. Haley looked at it, then back at me, I forced a smile to my lips. After a few seconds she opened the door with a decisive click.

"Come on in." She said.

"Thanks," Dean said from behind me.

Haley was looking behind us at the Impala on the road. It was a sight to behold, not something you'd see every day in Lost Creek, Colorado. She looked at Dean, nodding at the car.

"That yours?" She asked.

"Yeah." Dean answered. Sam was looking at the Impala and then turned to look at my amused expression. He shrugged.

"Nice car." Haley said with a smile. She turned on her heel and led us into the dining room just inside the door. Dean threw a look back at us as if to say _hey, she likes my car! _I just shook my head, he was such a sucker.

"So if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know some thing's wrong?" Sam asked.

I cast my eyes around the room. The house was clean and orderly, simply furnished, comfortable. A teenager with short black hair sat the table fiddling with his cutlery while Haley brought a bowl of food from the kitchen and set it in the middle of the table.

"He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos – we haven't heard anything in over three days now." Haley answered.

"Well maybe he can't get cell reception." I said, thinking about the isolated ridge.

"He's got a satellite phone too." Haley responded, heading back into the kitchen. I raised my eyebrow. Was it just me or were these kids just a little too on the careful side of things?

"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean asked, his eyes showed that he was thinking along similar lines.

"He wouldn't do that," the teenager responded with an exasperated look at Dean. Dean eyed the young boy who looked away. Haley came back in from the kitchen carrying another bowl of food.

"Our parents are gone. It's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other," she explained.

"Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Sam asked.

Haley considered, nodding. "Yeah." She had a laptop open on the other end of the dining table. She moved it around so that Sam could have a look and pulled up some pictures.

"That's Tommy," she said, pointing to a photo of a smiling, good looking guy sitting in a tent. She clicked through some photos before stopping at a video, the last contact they'd received from him.

_Hey Haley, day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge." _Tommy's voice was relaxed and calm, he looked as if he was settling in for the night in his tent. "_We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow."_

Sam was staring intently at the screen, I watched his face and something registered behind his eyes, he inclined his head to the side, thoughtful. He'd noticed something in the video, I was certain of it. He glanced up at me, his lips tightening into a straight line. I raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Well, we'll find your brother." Dean said. "We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing tomorrow."

"Then maybe I'll see you there." Haley countered walking past Dean to stand behind her younger brother. She was wringing her hands as she walked, agitated and worked up. Sam and I exchanged frowns. That didn't sound good. "Look, I can't sit around here anymore. So I hired a guy. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself."

"I think I know how you feel." Dean said, he looked away thoughtfully, I tried to get him to look at me but he was avoiding my gaze.

"Hey do you mind forwarding these to me?" Sam asked, pointing to the videos. _Yep, definitely saw something, _I thought with a smile.

"Sure," Haley said with a shrug.

* * *

**Lost Creek Bar**

I focused my attention on the game of pool in front of me, lining up my shot and easing into the play. With a quick jerk of the cue, I pocketed the eight ball and stood up with a triumphant smile on my face. My new opponent was looking at me with annoyance, and I raised an eyebrow at him in challenge. He looked as if he was going to put up an argument, staring at me with a cold hard look before tossing a bunch of bills on the table in disgust. I chuckled, collecting them, and bowed slightly in his direction before he stalked off toward the bar, muttering to himself.

A waitress walked past carrying some beers, and I turned to look for Dean and Sam. They weren't far, they never were in places like this. They were sitting at a small table, Sam rummaging through his knapsack. Dean took a sip of beer out of the mug in his hand, casting a gaze around the room. His hazel eyes met mine and I waved the money at him. He raised his head with a grin at me, winking, and I headed toward them with a skip in my step. It felt good to be having some downtime.

I slid into the chair next to Dean and squeezed his thigh in an unspoken greeting. They'd grabbed me a beer as well and it was sitting untouched on the table, I picked it up and took a long swig, letting the cool amber liquid run down my throat with a sigh of pleasure.

"So," Sam said, getting back to the topic at hand. "Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic. Local campers, mostly. But still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found." He opened a folder with his notes in it and started flipping through some newspaper articles.

"Any before that?" I asked, taking another sip of my beer and eyeing off the nachos another couple were eating at the table nearby.

Sam handed the newspaper articles to Dean, nodding at me. "Yeah, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack. And again in 1959, and again before that in 1936."

Sam pulled out his laptop and put it on the table. He spun it around to face us, opening the screen up. "Every 23 years, just like clockwork. Now watch this. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out."

He pulled up the video, and progressed through three frames of the video in still motion. A shadow crossed the screen. I felt the noise around us begin to fade, a strange thumping in my ears as my brain fought to catch up to what my eyes had just scene. The room faded away and I was left staring at the video and nothing else.

"Do that again." Dean said, focussing on the video. Sam repeated the frames, again, the shadow flicked across the screen.

"That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second." I said carefully. "Whatever that thing is, it can move." I said quietly, letting out a breath. The shadow was imprinted on my mind.

I was brought out of my revelry when Dean punched Sam. "I told you something was going on!" He said with a chuckle. Sam closed the laptop and started to put it back in his messenger bag.

"Yeah." Sam agreed. "I got one more thing."

"What?" I asked, curious, bringing myself back into the conversation.

Sam handed me another newspaper article, I glanced at the date, 1959.

"In '59 one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive." Sam's eyes were sparkling with excitement, I grinned at him feeling the investigative part of me flare to life. Witnesses. Witnesses were always good. Dean leaned forward to get a look at the article I was holding.

"Is there a name?" He asked.

* * *

**Shaw Apartment**

The older man had let us into the one bedroom apartment with barely a question. He shuffled ahead of us into the darkly lit living room, a lit cigarette dangling from his lips, worn slippers dragging along the bare floor boards. I glanced around, wrinkling my nose in distaste. It smelled of old cigarettes and mould, not unlike some of the more seedier motels we'd had to crash in from time to time. I tried not to think about it. How anyone let their home get so far run down was just a testament to the work we did, why we did it, monsters left traumatised people in their wake, if they left them alive at all. I shuddered, briefly considering that this could have been me, the hollowed out shell of a woman left broken from a demon's game. If I'd lived through it at all. Pushing it out of my mind, I focused on what the elderly man was saying.

"Look, Ranger, I don't know why you're asking me about this. It's public record. I was a kid. My parents got mauled by a-" He hesitated at the next word, and Sam jumped in.

"Grizzly?" He asked. "That's what attacked them?"

Shaw turned to regard us with wary eyes. He took a puff of his cigarette, reaching up to take it from his mouth and exhaled the smoke, he was shaky, looking down at the floor, a haunted look in his eyes. Slowly he nodded a few times, but it lacked conviction.

"The other people that went missing that year, those bear attacks too?" Dean asked.

The cigarette was back in his mouth, just hanging there, like some kind of security blanket. Shaw looked down, refusing to meet Dean's eyes. He said nothing.

"What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing?" Dean pressed, stepping closer with his shoulders set square.

He just looked at Dean, still saying nothing. I stepped forward, moving around Dean to face Shaw.

"If we knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it." I said quietly. Hoping to reason with the man, to get him to tell us what had really happened all those years ago. Shaw pulled the cigarette out of his mouth, looking me straight in the eyes. There was fear there, and disbelief.

"I seriously doubt that." He said, slowing sitting down in his arm chair. "Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make." He looked at each of us, quietly assessing us, as if trying to make up his mind whether we could be trusted with his secret or not. "You wouldn't believe me." He raised his eyebrows at us, reaching for a glass of scotch off the little table by the chair. "Nobody ever did," he sighed.

Sam moved to sit down in front of Shaw and I stepped back next to Dean.

"Mr Shaw," Sam coaxed. "What did you see?" Sam's eyes shone with sincerity, he was all honey and roses without the thorns, drawing Shaw in to his world where you couldn't help but feel safe. I'd seen this work on any number of people before, but the women, they would fall head over heels for this look – as if their knight in shining armour was here to rescue them, and they spilled everything, trusting in that idea. Shaw paused, assessing the sincerity.

"Nothing." He said finally, the fear showing clearly in his eyes, a quiet desperation. "It moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it though." He frowned, I could see him recalling the sound. "Like a roar. Like... no man or animal I ever heard."

"It came at night?" Sam asked. Shaw nodded.

"Got inside your tent?" Sam continued.

"It got inside _our cabin._" Shaw said pointedly, glancing up at Dean and I. "I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window or break the door. _It unlocked it. _Do you know of a bear that could do something like that?" He asked, looking back at Sam. Dean and I exchanged troubled glances. Shaw continued. "I didn't even wake up until I heard my parents screaming."

"It killed them?" I asked.

"Dragged them off into the night." Shaw clarified, shaking his head. Dean was looking at the floor, thinking hard, a slight frown on his face. He inclined his head slightly, taking a harder look at Shaw, trying to picture it all – we all were.

"Why it left me alive... been asking myself that ever since." Shaw said sadly. I frowned, it was a good question, Sam was looking down, shaking his head. I saw Shaw's hands go to his collar, and I leaned forward a little to see in the dark.

"It did leave me this, though." He said, pulling back his collar to reveal three massive long scars across his left shoulder and collar bone. They were thick and grainy, like rib bones sticking out. Claw marks. Claw marks from something we'd never seen before. Sam and Dean tensed, we all swallowed hard taking in the fact that we'd been right.

"There's something evil in those woods." Shaw said, stating what we were all now thinking. "It was some sort of demon." _Not a demon, _I thought, _but something just as dangerous, if not more so._

* * *

"Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors," I was saying to Sam and Dean as we walked through the halls of Shaw's apartment building back to the car. "If they want inside, they just go through the walls."

"So it's probably something else, something corporeal." Sam said. Dean looked at his brother, a smirk on his face.

"Corporeal? Excuse me professor," he chuckled, I felt the corner of my mouth twitch up in a smile.

"Shut up!" Sam said, punching him in the arm. "So what do you think?"

Dean paused and shrugged. "The claws, the speed that it moves... could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog. Whatever we're talking about, we're talking about a creature... and it's _corporeal,_" his eyes lit up with the humour of using Sam's "big word". He looked satisfied with himself. "Which means we can kill it." He stalked off ahead of us leaving Sam and me to trail behind.

Dean was at the Impala, trunk open as Sam and I wandered over talking quietly to ourselves about possible creature suspects. He had the weapons box propped open with the shotgun and was sliding some guns into a duffel bag. I leaned in to look him in the eye, making my point.

"We cannot let that Haley girl go out there." I said handing him my favourite gun, he put it in with the others. Dean didn't stop what he was doing, tossing some ammo boxes into the bag along with the guns.

"Oh yeah?" He said casually, looking up at me. "What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?" I bit my lip and he nodded, he knew he was right.

"Well, yeah." Sam said, he hadn't seen the look we exchanged.

Dean straighted up and turned to stare at his brother.

"Her brother's missing Sam. She's not just gonna sit this one out." Dean countered. "We go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy furry friend." He picked up the duffel and stepped back from the car. I removed the shotgun from where it was holding up the trunk, and slammed the trunk shut with a sigh.

"Finding Dad's not enough?" Sam said frustrated. "Now we gotta baby sit too?" Dean just stared at Sam.

"What?!" Sam asked defiantly.

"Nothing." Dean said tossing the duffel at him. He knew, Sam knew, we all knew what had to be done. Didn't make it any easier.

* * *

**National Park  
**_**The Next Morning**_

It was a bright sunny day that dawned on us. Not a cloud in the sky. I was staring out the window, my eyes running from the rocky peak in the distance, round, white, formidable down along the tree line to the trio that was gathered near a walking trail. Dean eased the car in behind Haley, Ben and another man who was loading a hunting rifle out of the back of his truck. Seeing us arrive, Haley turned to look at us defiantly, hands on her hips. I took a deep breath of the pine filled air as I stepped out of the Impala, shrugging into my khaki hiking jacket before grabbing the duffel off the back seat and handing it to Sam.

"You guys got room for three more?" Dean asked casually, slamming his door shut.

"Wait, you want to come with us?" Haley's stance relaxed, she had clearly been expecting us to talk her out of going looking for her brother.

"Who are these guys?" The man behind Haley asked, looking us over.

"Apparently this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue." Haley replied with a smirk. Sam and I brushed past them, letting Dean handle the banter. The sun was bright, and I slipped my sunglasses on, pulling my long dark hair back into a ponytail and securing it with a hair tie. I could feel the man giving me an appraising look, taking in my curves as I leaned over to tighten the laces on one of my boots.

"You're rangers?" He asked, looking back at Dean.

"That's right." Dean said.

"And you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?" Haley asked. I stifled a laugh at that. I don't know how Dean did it. I had to at least put my hiking boots on, no way was I getting blisters for this trip, I needed to be able to move, and comfortably. I had slipped on some black cargo pants for the hike, they could be worn rolled up to my knees and secured as three-quarter pants by a button, or down as full length. At the moment they were in the shorter choice. The man leading Haley had been looking at my bare legs earlier, Dean was looking at Haley's own legs with a smirk – she was looking at him sceptically.

"Well sweetheart. I don't do shorts." He quipped without missing a beat. He chuckled and headed past the trio to where Sam and I were waiting.

"You think this is funny?" The man said, turning to look at us. "It's dangerous back country out there. Her brother might be hurt!" He said.

"Believe me, I know how dangerous it can be. We just wanna help them find their brother, that's all." Dean answered, and he turned to walk past us, leading us into the forest.

* * *

Roy, as we learned was the guide's name, had taken the lead, and we'd all settled into a comfortable hiking routine. Dean was following Roy, his eyes peeled into the woods around us, alert, ready for action. Haley and Ben were behind him, leaving me and then Sam to bring up the rear.

"So Roy, you said you did a little hunting?" Dean asked, glancing up at the treeline in front of us.

"Yeah, more than a little," Roy replied sullenly.

"Uh-huh. What kind of furry critters do you hunt?" Dean was goading him, I sighed quietly shaking my head.

"Mostly buck, sometimes bear." Roy said. Dean stepped past Roy, raising an eyebrow.

"Tell me, uh, Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?" He quipped.

Roy lunged for Dean, grabbing him by the back of his shirt. Sam exchanged a curious look with me and put a steadying hand on my arm, I hadn't realised I had been already moving to Dean's side.

Dean froze, looking Roy in the eyes. "Whatcha doing Roy?" He asked.

Roy let go of Dean, and silently reached down to grab a stick, before stabbing it a few inches beyond where Dean was standing. A steel trap sprung to life, triggered by the stick. I gulped and blew out a breath I didn't realised I'd been holding. Haley looked annoyed, Dean was quiet.

"You should watch where you're stepping. _Ranger." _Roy said, stepping around the trap and retaking the lead.

Dean shrugged sheepily, glancing back at me and I met his eyes with a cautioning look. "It's a bear trap." He explained. _Yes, I can see that. _I thought to myself, shaking my head, yet throwing him a little smile in spite of myself. Haley was watching this little exchange and I froze, we were supposed to be co-workers, _act the part _I cautioned myself, looking back at Sam who was watching the woods.

Dean turned and moved to follow Roy who was now a good couple of yards down the trail. Dean was moving quickly, frustrated at his near-miss. Haley had started to hurry after him, as Ben, Sam and I followed.

"You didn't pack any provisions," she said pointedly, her voice floating back to Sam and I. "You guys are carrying a _duffel bag_. And the way... the three of you work together, it's more than just a job..." She looked between Dean and I. "the way you protect each other...you're not Rangers." She grabbed his arm and Dean stopped to look at her.

"Who the hell are you?" She asked pointedly. Ben pushed past Dean and Haley, not paying attention to the exchange in the slightest. I paused, Sam at my back, looking at Dean. Dean gave us the nod and indicated that we should follow Ben. I exchanged a look with Sam, he shrugged and we both walked on, heads down, looking at our feet and the rough terrain we were starting to head into.

"Look... Sam and I are brothers," I heard Dean start to explain. We moved on further and the conversation was lost to me, but a few glances back told me that Haley was digesting whatever story Dean had given her about why we were here at Blackwater Ridge with them. Suddenly Dean pulled a bag of peanut M&Ms out of his jacket pocket, sticking his hand in as he started moved to catch up with us.

"And what do you mean I didn't pack provisions?" I heard him laugh back in her direction, waving the bag around at her.

* * *

We had come to a clearing in the trees, small green ferns covered the entire area we were standing, leaving lots of hiding places for nasty things to come at us. Roy stopped, gesturing around us.

"This is it. Blackwater Ridge." He announced, stepping aside. Sam and I wandered past him, Ben on our heels, Haley and Dean bringing up the rear now.

"What coordinates are we at?" Sam asked, glancing around nervously.

Roy pulled a GPS out of his jacket, I looked over his shoulder at the read-out. "Thirty-five and minus one-eleven." Roy replied. I met Sam's eyes and nodded. This was the place. Dean stepped up to Sam and indicated we should listen.

"You hear that?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. Not even crickets." Sam answered. The silence was deafening when you focused on it. I felt that familiar uneasiness settling into my stomach, the way I always felt when we were on to something. I instinctively reached to my neck, my fingers brushing over my rosary beads, it calmed me.

"I'm gonna take a look around." Roy said putting his GPS back into his jacket.

"You shouldn't go off by yourself." Sam said.

"That's sweet. Don't worry about me." Roy said pushing his way between the two brothers and moving into the trees.

Dean raised his eyebrow. "All right, everybody stays together. Let's go." He said, starting to follow Roy.

* * *

We'd moved off further into the woods, large boulders framed the clearing we suddenly found ourselves in except for a few trees. Pine needles littered the ground, cushioning the forest floor and muffling our footsteps.

Ben was leaning against a tree near where I was standing with Sam looking around our surroundings. Without warning, he pulled away from the tree and walked over to another tree, pulling back a branch. Sam and I followed and looked at what he'd found. A stick-figure carving scarred the tree.

"That's a hell of a find Ben. Those are Anasazi." Sam said, reaching out to touch the carving.

"What's that?" Ben asked, looking at it with interest.

"Ancient Indians." I replied. "They were this whole civilisation that just vanished completely. No one really knows why." Sam was staring intently at the figure, frowning slightly.

"What is it?" I asked of him. He glanced up.

"I've seen that somewhere before." He said thoughtfully.

Suddenly Roy's voice carried to us from a short distance away. "Haley! Over here!"

Haley took off running toward Roy's voice, we all followed closely, racing over a little embankment into what had been a campsite.

"Oh my God." Haley breathed, surveying the damage. Tents lay strewn across the camp site, shredded to pieces. Dean paused to look at one of the tents which was covered in blood, his eyes flicking around to our perimeter. Upturned camp chairs, sleeping bags, assorted camping supplies like dishes, cutlery, utensils all littered the area.

"Looks like a grizzly." Roy commented. I looked up at Sam and his face was pensive. Haley had dropped her pack on the ground and started to stagger directionless around the camp site.

"Tommy..." She said. I moved to catch up with her, my legs carrying me quickly to her. "Tommy! Tommy!" I reached out a hand and put it to her mouth.

"Shhh." I said, letting my hand drop but looking her in the eye. "Something might still be out there," I explained, looking around, the foliage was dark, night was coming on, we would be sitting ducks soon.

"Sam!" Dean called out. He was a few yards into the woods, crouching down looking at something on the ground. Sam jogged to Dean's side, snapping a twig as he crouched to see what Dean was looking at. I wandered over to join them.

"The bodies were dragged from the camp site. But here, the tracks just vanish. That's weird." Dean was saying.

They both stood, stepping back into me. I exchanged glances with Dean and he took a deep breath turning to walk back to the camp.

"I'll tell you what, that's no skinwalker or black dog." He said seriously.

As we returned to the camp site Haley had picked up a cell phone, I saw that it was smashed and covered in blood. She was struggling to hold it together, fighting off tears and despair. I went and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, mustering up an encouraging smile. "Hey, he could still be alive," she just looked at me, disbelieving, I saw a look of defeat sneaking into her mind.

"Help! Help!" A male's voice called from a distant point in the forest. I jumped up, the trees spinning around us as I scrambled to get a lock on the direction. Dean and Roy pulled their guns and ran in the direction they'd heard the screams from. We all followed closely behind, running into the woods, scrambling through underbrush. We came to a clearly and stopped, Roy was training his gun on the trees and we all looked about.

"It seemed like it was coming from around here, didn't it?" Haley asked.

"Everybody back to camp." Sam said suddenly, jogging back the way we had come. We returned quickly to camp. Grimly Dean was looking around, hands on his hips.

"Son of a bitch!" He muttered under his breath. All the packs and supplies were missing.

"Our packs!" Haley cried out.

Roy ran a hand through his short blond hair, crouching on the ground where he'd left his pack. "So much for my GPS and satellite phone."

"What the hell is going on?" Haley asked.

"It's smart. It wants to cut us off so we can't call for help," I said, crossing my arms against the encroaching darkness.

"You mean someone, some nutjob out there just stole all our gear?" Roy said continuing to look out into the trees.

Dean was standing next to me, thinking, planning. Sam approached us and said quietly. "I need to speak with you. _In private." _We moved away from the group like we were looking for tracks. Sam looked back at the others who were talking amongst themselves.

"Good." He said. "Let me see Dad's journal."

I pulled off my lightweight pack and pulled it out, handing the leather book to him. Sam opened it, flipping through the pages all covered in John's handwriting and different pictures and articles. He stopped at a page and Dean and I both leaned forward to see what he had found. Sam pointed to a First Nations style drawing of a figure, almost a stick-figure of a man.

"Oh come on, wendigos are in the Minnesota woods, or northern Michigan. I've never even heard of one this far west." Dean said when he recognised what Sam was talking about.

"Think about it Dean, the claws, the way it can mimic a human voice..." Sam trailed off and we all stared at each other, doing the math.

"Great..." I breathed, starting to get antsy, looking out into the trees.

"Well this is useless then." Dean said, holding up his gun. Sam handed me back the journal, and I slipped it into my pack, zipping it closed so it was safe and sound.

"We gotta get these people to safety." I said absently, Sam paused and nodded. Moving back to the camp site, Sam cleared his throat and began to speak.

"All right, listen up, it's time to go. Things have gotten... more complicated." He said.

"What?" Haley asked looking back and forth from Sam to Roy.

"Kid, don't worry. Whatever's out there, I think I can handle it," Roy said, patting his gun.

"It's not me I'm worried about. If you shoot this thing, you're just gonna make it mad. We have to leave. Now." Sam's words were serious, but Roy wasn't listening.

I was looking at the fading daylight, it would be dark within the hour, could we make it back to safety before then? Would the wendigo track us if we got far enough away?

"One," Roy was saying, "you're talking nonsense. Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders."

"Relax." Dean reasoned.

"We never should have let you come out here in the first place, all right? I'm trying to protect you." Sam said, irritated. Roy stepped right up into Sam's face, invading the younger man's personal space and trying to intimidate him.

"You protect me?" He said arrogantly. "I was hunting these woods when your mommy was still kissing you good night."

"Yeah?" Sam responded, unfazed by the attempt to get him to back down, staring into Roy's eyes. "It's a damn near _perfect_ hunter. It's smarter than you, and it's gonna hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid sorry ass out of here." Sam's mouth had a twitch to it, he was amused at Roy's ignorance. I could understand, but this was getting us nowhere.

Roy laughed, punching Sam in the chest."You know you're crazy, right?" He said.

"Yeah? You ever hunt a wen-" Dean gave Sam a shove, hard, interrupting what he'd been about to say.

"Chill out." Dean instructed, pushing a finger to Sam's chest.

"Roy!" Haley yelled.

"Stop. Stop it! Everybody just stop!" I pushed my way in to the middle. "We can't be fighting amongst ourselves."

"Tommy might still be alive," Haley interjected, "and I'm not leaving here without him." She gave each of us a very determined look. I looked around again, ever conscious of the diminishing light.

"It's getting late." I said, looking pointedly at Dean who nodded.

"This thing is a good hunter in the day, but an unbelievable hunter at night." Dean said for everyone's benefit.

"We'll never beat it, not in the dark." I said. "We need to settle in and protect ourselves." I was already reaching for John's journal again.

"How?" Haley asked. I produced the journal at the question, Dean nodded and we walked off to the edge of the camp.

"We need to get these symbols of protection around the entire camp," Dean said to me and I nodded. Sam was collecting pieces of firewood to start a fire, it would ward off the dark and the chill. I bent down and rolled my cargo pants down to the full length, already feeling a little warmer for the effort.

* * *

I took a stick and started drawing the symbols, one after the other as Dean smoothed out a circle around the camp fire for me to draw on. It was fully dark now and Sam had a fire going in the centre. Haley was sitting with Ben at the fire, poking it and looking unsure of at our actions.

"One more time, that's -?" She was pointing at the symbols.

"Anasazi symbols," Dean answered. "It's for protection. The wendigo can't cross over them." Roy laughed at this, his gun slung over his shoulder.

"Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy." I muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Sam was sitting on the edge of the camp site staring out into the darkness. Dean walked over and sat next to him. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I could see that Sam was wound up as tight as a powder keg, he was ready to blow at any moment and it was so unlike him. I finished up the last symbol and headed over to join the boys.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Dean was saying. "Tell you the truth, I don't think Dad's ever been to Lost Creek." The exchanged a look and I could see Sam straining to get his head around this thought.

"Then let's get these people back to town and let's hit the road. Go find Dad. I mean why are we still even here?" Sam asked, he struck out at the ground with a stick, looking frustrated and forlorn. Dean wordlessly reached a hand out to me and pulled me down to sit between them, I squeezed in the middle and put my arm around Sam in a sisterly comforting manner, he forced a smile and leaned into me a little bit, responding to the touch. Dean stood up and moved to crouch in front of Sam, he'd pulled John's journal out of his jacket. He held it out for Sam to see.

"This is why." Dean answered. "This book. This is Dad's single most valuable possession – everything he knows about every evil thing is in here. And he's passed it on to us." His eyes met mine, the significance was not lost on me. Sam shook his head.

"Maybe he wants us to pick up where he left off." I said quietly, Dean was nodding.

"Saving people, hunting things, the family business." Dean said. Sam looked up, his eyes were red from exhaustion and trying to keep it together. I took a moment to think about how he'd been away for over three years, he wasn't accustomed to the hunting lifestyle like Dean and I were. I gave him an encouraging squeeze with my right hand on his upper arm.

"It makes no sense." Sam ran his hands over his face. "Why doesn't he just - call us? Why doesn't he - tell us what he wants, tell us where he is?" Sam was struggling and it was obvious.

"I dunno." Dean admitted. "But the way I see it, Dad's giving us a job to do, and I intend to do it."

"Dean... no." Sam shook his head, barely speaking in whispers. "I gotta find Dad. I gotta find Jessica's killer. It's the only thing I can think about."

"Okay, all right, Sam, we'll find them. I promise. Listen to me. You've gotta prepare yourself." Dean said, glancing at me, the concern for Sam's mental state written clearly in his eyes.

"Sam, this search could take a while," I said quietly, drawing his look to me. "All that anger, you can't keep letting it drive you. It will burn you up. It's gonna kill you." I held him close, looking him in the eyes. "You have to have some patience Sam. Or you won't last the distance."

Sam looked down shaking his head, then back up at me, over at Dean. "How do you guys do it?" He asked, his voice breaking. "How does Dad do it?"

Dean glanced over at Haley and Ben sitting by the fire. "Well for one, them." He nodded at the siblings who were comforting each other, clearly worried about their brother.

"We just want to help people Sam. I mean, our family is already so screwed up, there's no going back for us, but, maybe we can help some others. Makes things a little bit more bearable." I said quietly, thinking about how we'd all come into this life of hunting.

"I'll tell you what else helps." Dean said to him with a smile. "Killing as many evil sons of bitches as we possibly can." Sam smiled at that, and I chuckled.

_Crack!_

We all spun at the sound of a twig snapping.

"Help me!" A voice in the darkness called out to us. "Please!" We were instantly on our feed, moving instinctively back to the fire. Dean pulled his gun out.

"Help!" The voice called. Sam had turned on his flashlight and was shining it into the trees, we couldn't see anything.

"He's trying to draw us out." I said.

"Just stay cool, stay put!" Dean instructed everyone.

"Inside the magic circle?" Roy smirked, his gun raised in front of him.

"Help! Help me!" The voice again, this time more agitated, followed by a growling that I had never heard before in my life. Roy pointed his gun at the sound.

"Okay, that's no grizzly," he conceded, looking cautious.

Haley had her arm around Ben and was trying to comfort the young boy. "It's ok. You'll be all right, I promise." A flurry of movement rushed past us. Haley shrieked but stayed where she was. It was fast!

"It's here." Sam said.

Roy started firing shots at the rustling in the underbrush. "I hit it!" He cried triumphantly, racing out into the woods to see what he hit.

"Roy, no! Roy!" Dean yelled, hesitating at the edge of the protective circle. He looked back at us.

"Don't move!" Dean instructed me unnecessarily, I threw him an exasperated look but he was already running after Roy with Sam hot on his heels. I picked up a stick from the fire and held it in front of me, looking out into the night.

"It's over here! It's in the tree!" I heard Roy call out. In the distance I heard movement, Dean was calling out to Roy, and then... nothing. Silence.

* * *

Daylight broke with a sombre reminder that we were one down. Roy had been taken by the wendigo and the boys had returned empty handed last night.

Sam was sitting next to a hollow tree stump, John's journal in his hand, staring at nothing in particular, he looked defeated. Dean and I were looking at claw marks on the trees listening to Haley babble.

"These types of things, they aren't supposed to be real," the girl said, shaking her head.

"I wish I could tell you different." Dean replied, crouching down in front of her, picking up a stick and fiddling with it.

"How do we know it's not out there watching us?" She asked, looking at him.

"We don't," I replied, leaning against the tree and crossing my arms.

"How do you know about this stuff?" Haley asked.

Dean considered, looking up at me. I shrugged. "Kind of runs in the family." Dean answered, standing up and walking off. She thought about this, looking up at me, and started to say something but then closed her mouth. Sam was walking toward us and I looked over at him, a smile on my face.

"Hey," Sam said, smiling back. Haley stood up at his arrival.

"So we've got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch," he said. Dean nodded approvingly.

"Well, hell, you know I'm in," he said. I didn't say anything, didn't have to. I went where they went.

Sam flipped the journal open to the wendigo page and showed the entry to Haley and Ben. "Wendigo is a Cree Indian word. It means 'evil that devours'," he explained.

"They're hundreds of years old. Each one was once a man. Sometimes an Indian, or other times a frontiersman or a miner or a hunter." I said, pushing away from the tree and coming to stand by Sam.

"How's a man turn into one of those things?" Haley asked as we all watched Dean picking up random items off the ground.

"Well it's always the same." Dean said. "During some harsh winter a guy finds himself starving, cut off from supplies or help. Becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp."

"Like the Donner Party." Ben said. Sam nodded.

"Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality." I said.

"If you eat enough of it, over years, you become this less than human thing. You're always hungry." Sam said solemnly.

"So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?" Haley asked, tears brimming in her eyes.

"You're not gonna like it." Dean said, glancing at Sam, then back to Haley.

"Tell me." She said steeling herself. Dean looked at me, raising an eyebrow. I sighed.

"More than anything," I started, "a wendigo knows how to last long winters without food. It hibernates for years at a time, but when it's awake it keeps its victims alive. It, uh, stores them so it can feed whenever it wants." I finished as Haley's eyes widened in the dawning horror, she looked over at Ben who cringed.

"If your brother's alive, it's keeping him somewhere dark, hidden and safe." Dean said. "We gotta track it back there."

"And then how do we stop it?" Haley asked.

"Well, guns are useless, so are knives." Dean said. "Basically -" He held up a can of lighter fluid, an empty beer bottle and the white cloth he'd picked up.. "We gotta torch the sucker."

* * *

Dean was leading the way through the woods, molotov cockail in hand. Haley was following him, then Ben, myself and Sam. I noted claw marks and blood on the trees as we went. Suddenly we found ourselves in a clearing. Sam was staring up at the tree tops, stopped in the centre.

"Dean!" He called out, getting his brother's attention.

"What is it?" Dean asked, walking up to Sam who looked up causing us all to do so. Claw marks and blood marked every tree surrounding us.

"You know, I was thinking, those claw prints, so clear and distinct. They were almost too easy to follow." Sam said. A low pitched growling started and we all whipped around, looking out to the woods. Trees started to rustle and Haley backed into a tree. I looked over at her and saw blood drip on to her shirt. She looked up, screamed and then leaped away in a hurry falling to the forest floor. Roy's body hit the ground with a sickening thud, bloody and broken looking.

Dean hurried over to examine Roy as Sam helped Haley to her feet.

"You ok? You got it?" Sam asked of Dean.

"His neck's broken," Dean answered. The growling was back, Dean stood up quickly hands gathering us all together and herding us back in the direction we had come, we all stumbled to find out footing in the mad rush to get away.

"OK, run, run, run, run, go, go, go!" Dean yelled. He was running through the trees, directionless, with the molotov cocktail in hand. We struggled to keep up with him. Ben tripped over a tree root, falling to the ground hard. I changed direction and ran back to help him, Sam with me. We pulled Ben to his feet, looking around us, we had no idea where the wendigo was.

"We got ya." Sam said, urging Ben in the direction Dean and Haley had run. We broke off at a run again, and in the distance we heard Haley scream. We were too far away, Sam and I exchanged looks of panic and picked up our speed, running for all we were worth. We cleared an embankment, slowing down, they were nowhere in sight. Sam bent down and stood up with a sigh, broken beer bottle in his hand. I felt my heart leap into my throat as the reality of what had just happened set in.

"Haley!" Ben called out with futility.

Sam spun in a circle, looking in all directions.

"Dean!" I yelled out, knowing there'd be know answer. "Dean!" I was out of breath, my hands on my head as I stopped to catch my breath. I looked at Sam and the same look of fear was on both our faces. It had them.

* * *

There was no trail, no way to know where the wendigo had taken them. I fought the rising panic, I had to keep a cool head. Where would it take them? We had to find the lair.

"It it keeps its victims alive, why would it kill Roy?" Ben asked suddenly. I was leading us along the nearest path, just following a gut feeling, we really had no idea where we should go.

"Honestly? I think because Roy shot at it, pissed it off." Sam answered, coming up behind me, giving me a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. He was worried about me. I was pulling it together. This wasn't the way to save Dean, and it wasn't the first time we'd been separated on the job. I had to set my feelings aside and work the job. _What would Dean do? What would Dad do? _I asked myself. I mentally steeled myself against my emotions and walked on into the woods.

A flash of colour caught my eye and I hurried forward to see what it was. I couldn't believe my eyes. Bending down I picked up the object with a laugh.

"They went this way." I said confidently.

"How do you know?" Sam asked. I raised my eyebrow with a smile and tossed him the object. He looked at it, a peanut M&M in the palm of his hand.

"It's better than breadcrumbs." I said with a smile, pointing at other M&Ms leading into the woods. Sam tossed the M&M away with a smile and we all walked at a faster pace following the trail. I comforted myself with the knowledge that at the very least it meant the wendigo hadn't killed Dean on sight like it did Roy, which meant there was still a very good chance of rescuing both him and Haley.

The M&Ms continued to lead us deeper into the forest, finally we came to a steep embankment littered with barrels and old metal objects. Sam scooted down the embankment, almost on his hands and knees. Ben followed, with me bringing up the rear. We found ourselves in front of an abandoned mine, the entrance barred with boards, and a sign that read '_WARNING! DANGER! DO NOT ENTER, EXTREMELY TOXIC MATERIAL."_A couple of the boards were missing, creating a looked at me, shrugged and then led the way inside. We followed close behind, ignoring the sign stating no admittance that hung over the entrance.

* * *

**Mine**

Sam had the flashlight out, shining a light as we walked into the mine. We heard growling and in a second he'd shut it off, I pulled Ben against the wall of one of the tunnels. Ben whimpered as the wendigo was silhouetted against the light shining in from the entrance. Sam held his hand over the young boy's mouth, shushing him.

We waited breathlessly, watching, hoping that we hadn't been heard. The wendigo turned down another tunnel and kept going. Sam gestured for us to keep going down the tunnel we were in. I led the way. Suddenly there was an ominous creak and I looked down to see we were standing on floorboards. Floorboards that suddenly gave way! We fell through the floor with a thump.

Groaning, I rolled over on to my hands and knees, getting my bearings. My hands were slipping out from under me as objects rolled out underneath. Looking down I fought back the urge to dry retch, realising we were lying in a pile of old, dried up bones. Sam was getting to his feet, the sun was shining in through the broken floorboards above our head, he looked around. Ben had landed face first in a pile of skulls, he cried out, jumped back running into Sam.

"It's ok, it's ok, it's ok." Sam whispered, comforting him. I was looking around, eyes starting to adjust to the darkness.

My eyes fell to a figure hanging from the support beams holding up the mine. Haley. I jumped up and ran to her. Dean was behind her. I stepped beyond Haley to shake Dean gently, my hand going to his face, lifting it up.

"Dean..." I said. _Please be all right. Please be all right. _"Dean!" I said, shaking him. Ben was next to me shaking Haley while Sam looked around for something to cut them down with.

"Dean!" I shook him harder, noticed with a grimace the blood smeared across his face. Dean opened his eyes.

"Hey!" I smiled. "You ok?" He winced, and then nodded. I kissed him quickly, the relief in my eyes that he was alive showing in my eyes. "You sure?"

"Yeah." He grunted, throwing me a half-smile. "Get me down."

"Haley wake up." I heard Ben talking to his sister.

Sam had found a knife and was cutting Dean down, I put my shoulder under his arm and helped support him while Sam moved to cut down Haley. He weighed on me heavy and I moved us a few yards away to an empty spot on the floor, his breathing was laboured, and he hobbled, fighting back a groan. I grimaced. He was definitely not all right. I helped him to the floor and he grunted, making a pained noise in his throat.

"You sure you're all right?" I asked, worried. Dean was holding his side and I ran my hands down his chest, looking for wounds.

"Yeah, yep." Dean answered. "Where is he?"

"Gone for now." Sam said, helping Haley down beside Dean. Haley threw the rope around her wrists to the floor and I noticed her spot something else in the room with us. She stood up, walking over to another man hanging from the roof.

"Tommy?" She cried, tears flowing freely as she reached out to touch her brother's cheek. Suddenly Tom's head jerked up and he gasped for air. Haley shrieked, grabbing Sam's arm.

"Cut him down!" Sam quickly did as instructed, Haley and Ben moving to support their brother.

"We're gonna get you home." Haley promised Tom. I stepped back from Dean, and almost tripped over the packs that had been taken from us earlier. Dean grabbed my hand to help me balance, and together we started going through the packs. He picked up two flare guns, holding one in each hand like a cowboy, as he climbed to his feet.

"Check it out." He said.

"Flare guns." I said with a grin. "Those'll work." Dean laughed and twirled the guns on his fingers, the light shining on his face as he looked triumphantly on.

* * *

Dean was moving a lot easier, though he'd definitely had his better days. I had my arm around him, more for my own comfort than to support him. He didn't complain and instead wrapped his own arm around me, holding me close. Sam was in the lead, one of the flare guns in hand. Haley and Ben followed, carrying Tom between them as the man limped along.

Growling echoed down the tunnel.

"Looks like someone's home for supper." Dean said, pulling away and stepping in front of me slightly.

"We'll never outrun it," Haley said. Dean looked back at the others and exchanged looks with Sam who had his flare gun pointed in the direction the sound had come from.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Dean asked.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, I think so." I didn't have to be a mind reader to know that this was going to be risky.

"All right, listen to me. Stay with Sam and Beth. They'll get you out of here." Dean instructed the others.

"What are you gonna do?" I asked him, frowning. I knew better than to argue against his instructions, especially when he and Sam had a plan. But I didn't have to like it. Dean just winked at me, and started walking down the tunnel, yelling at the wendigo.

"Chow time, you freaky bastard! Yeah, that's right, bring it on, baby, I taste _good!" _He kept moving into the darkness, disappearing around a corner and I stared a little longer than I should have before coming back to myself. Sam touched my arm, I looked up at him with a nod, letting him know I was ready. Sam moved a few paces ahead, scouting with the flare gun before returning to us.

"All right, come on! Hurry!" Sam said to the others. He started leading us down the tunnel, I brought up the rear. We were moving as quickly as we could, but Tom was slowing us down. His muscles had atrophied while he was in captivity, and he was finding it hard to move. I noted that he looked as if he was ready to pass out.

Growling sounded in front of us. Sam raised his flare gun, then thought twice, lowering it and turning to me. "Get them outta here." He instructed.

"Sam, no." I said, shaking my head.

"Go! Go, go!" He said pushing me toward the exit.

"Beth come on!" Haley said, grabbing my arm and pulling me with them. I took a deep breath and turned wordlessly to lead the way out of the mine. Duty first. I heard more growling and then heard the hiss as Sam shot at it with the flare gun, the light blinding in the darkness, but missing its target.

"Sam!" I called. Sam tossed the now useless flare gun aside, and ran to catch up, I'd lost sight of the wendigo, where was it?

"Come on, hurry, hurry, hurry." Sam said, we all turned and ran for the end of the tunnel, there was sound of movement, what seemed like a shadow right behind us, growling. Sam, turned, holding his hands out, protecting us by placing himself in front of us.

"Get behind me!" The three siblings hid behind Sam and I stepped up beside him, if we were going to die, we'd die ttogether, saving these people.

The wendigo was approaching us slowly, as if taking it's time, torturing seconds passed as I found to control my breathing, exchanging a look with Sam, we would take it hand-to-hand for as long as we could, and hope the two of us were enough. The creature rose up before us, lit by the pale light of the sun streaming through the boards above it. It was huge, skin and bone, long limbs with huge claws. It roared at us, Haley shrieked and I found myself starting to recite the Lords Prayer in my head. _Our Father, who art in Heaven..._

Suddenly Dean appeared behind the wendigo.

"Hey!" He yelled. The wendigo spun to face Dean, and in that moment it erupted in a sizzling light as he shot it in the stomach with the other flare gun. Flames whooshed up and it squealed as it crumpled to the ground in ash.

"Not bad, huh?" He asked with a grin, his face lit up by the fire of the creature.

I was moving to Dean, wrapping my arms around him and pulling him close. He gave out a whoop, hugging me back. Sam grinned and I laughed with them.

* * *

**Ranger Station**

The officer was still interviewing Ben, asking him about the grizzly bear that had attacked us in the woods.

"I mean, this grizzly must have weight eight hundred, nine hundred pounds!" Ben said. Sam was next to him nodding.

The officer gave them a look. "All right, we'll go after it first thing."

Haley, Dean and I were standing near the ambulance, watching all the people moving around busily doing their jobs. She turned to us, looking at Dean.

"So really, I don't know how to thank you." She started.

Dean smirked at her with a flirtatious look. Haley smiled at him, shaking her head.

"Must you cheapen the moment?" She asked with a smile. Dean laughed and then turned to me with a smile.

"Must I?" He asked me, throwing an arm around my shoulder.

I shrugged. "It's what he does." I said matter-of-factly. He chuckled and leaned in to kiss me on the cheek before wandering off to talk to Sam.

Haley was looking Dean, and then at me. "You have a really strange family." She said, shaking her head.

"Hmmm?" I asked, not sure what she was getting at.

"Dean... I mean... he's your brother, but you're obviously _really close..._" She said, frowning slightly. I smiled, a few of the overheard conversations coming back to my mind. Dean telling Haley that Sam was his brother... and then talking about how hunting was a bit of a family business... she'd just assumed I was part of the family, in a more literal sense.

"Ah..." I said, nodding. "Well, yes, but no..." I struggled to find the words. "I was taken in when I was a teen, by their Dad. Raised as one of them, so they are my brothers... in a way. But Dean's not really my brother..." I trailed off, looking at him as he was chatting to Ben and Sam.

"...He's your partner..." Haley finished, the realisation dawning on her.

"Yeah." I smiled. "He is." Haley smiled, slipping her arm through mine in a sisterly manner.

"I'm glad." She said. "Because I was really starting to feel uncomfortable the way you guys looked at each other. I mean, I have two brothers, but ugh! That was just really really weird...especially the way he looks at you." I raised an eyebrow.

"Just how does he look at me?" I asked, genuinely interested.

She paused. Dean was looking at us both now with a curious expression on his face. He raised an eyebrow at me and I shrugged in his direction.

"Like you're his sun, moon and everything in between." She said quietly. I looked at her, my mouth hanging a bit open.

"Oh, he doesn't openly show it." She said. "I suppose it's hard, having to do the things you guys do, fight the battles you have to battle. He's clearly the tough guy who puts on a brave face for you and Sam. But he loves you, he barely took his eyes off you in the heat of things. At the same time, he trusts you to back him up. It's really something..." She trailed off. "He doesn't really seem the type." She finished, inclining her head as she looked at him. Dean was conversing quietly Sam next to the Impala, Ben had wandered off to the ambulance.

"Hmmm." I said, thinking. "Thanks." I smiled. "I don't get to have girl conversations much. Always surrounded by the boys."

"Anytime." Haley smiled. A paramedic came up to us asking if Haley was going to ride in the ambulance with Tommy. She nodded, turning to hug me tight.

"I hope you find your father." She said. I pulled back and nodded.

"Me too." I said with a smile. "Take care of your brothers." She nodded.

"You too." She chuckled.

She turned with a little farewell wave and moved off toward the ambulance. I watched her go until the doors of the ambulance were shut. Then turned back to Dean and Sam, walking over to them. They were sitting on the back of the Impala, backs turned to me. I approached quietly, not wanting to interrupt.

"Sam," Dean was saying. "You know we're gonna find Dad, right?"

"Yeah, I know." Sam said, nodding, looking back at me with a grin. "But in the meantime? I'm driving!" He said with a laugh.

Dean contemplated for a moment before tossing the keys to Sam.

"Fine by me." He said, opening the door to the back of the Impala. He turned to pull me into the back of the car with him. "I need some time with my girl anyway." He grinned, leaning over to kiss me tenderly.

Sam rolled his eyes, starting the car and turning the rearview mirror up to the ceiling. Sam revved the car and took off down the road into the night. We didn't know where we were going, but we were together, and we had each other. Not much else mattered in that moment.

* * *

**_Author's Note: I'm skipping the next episode because it was just... boring. Blah. So we'll be jumping into Phantom Traveler and a reunion with someone who was around when Dean and Beth first admitted their feelings for each other. Hope you're enjoying this story :) I'll be back soon with more. Until then, enjoy!_**


	5. Phantom Traveller - updated 25aug13

_**Updated 25 August 2013**_

* * *

**PHANTOM TRAVELLER**

* * *

**Motel Room**

To the untrained eye, Dean looked asleep, sprawled out on his stomach in the middle of the bed. He was on top of the sheets, black t-shirt and shorts on. I saw his hand go for the large hunting knife under his pillow as soon as I opened the door to our room. I didn't hide the fact that it was me, stepping into the room brandishing coffee and pastries from the bakery across the street. He visibly relaxed with a smile, squinting in the light from the window and put his head back down on the pillow.

"Morning sunshine," I said cheerfully, putting the food down on the bench near me and closing the door behind me.

"What time is it?" Dean asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Uh, about 5.45," I replied, taking the lid off the coffees and stirring in some sugar from the little stash of supplies near the old worn kettle.

"In the morning?" Dean asked, blinking and looking up at the clock on the bedside table.

"Yep." I said, crossing the room with his coffee and the bag of pastries. Dean sat back on the bed, and I put the bag of pastries next to him.

"Where does the day go?" He smiled, gratefully accepting the coffee that I offered. I shrugged with a grin and went back for my own coffee, returning to sit on the edge of the bed. Dean was chewing thoughtfully on a Belgian donut, licking the custard from his fingers with approving sounds.

He stopped and looked at me, I self-consciously ran a hand through my long hair, it really needed a brush. He leaned forward to give me a light kiss, his hazel eyes meeting mine, his breath smelled like custard and I half-smiled at that.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Dean asked, serious.

"Yeah, I got a little." I lied, taking a sip of my coffee.

"Liar." Dean accused. "Cause I woke up at three and you were watching a George Foreman infomercial."

I shrugged and replied "Well it's riveting TV, what can I say?" Dean pulled out another pastry, taking a big bite and moaning in delight at the apple filling that spilled into his mouth.

"You haven't slept well for the last few nights." Dean pointed out, and I grimaced, knowing that my tossing and turning had kept him awake at times too.

"You're getting to be as bad as Sam." Dean said, taking a sip of coffee and leaning back on the headboard. I took a deep breath.

"I know. I don't know what it is. The dizziness, the nausea, it's all passed, I'm feeling a lot better. But there's this restlessness underneath it all. I can't explain it Dean. But I feel anxious _all the time. _At first I thought it had something to do with Dad's disappearance... but now I don't know." I confessed, looking down at my hands.

"Hey," Dean said, reaching forward and taking my hand in his. "Hey..." He said again softly. I looked up at him. "We'll get to the bottom of it, ok?" He promised. I nodded. He pulled me over to him, I kicked off my shoes and allowed him to guide me into his chest, wrapping my arm around him as I settled into the familiar shape of his body, my head on his shoulder, hand over his heart. My breath slowed to match his and we sat in comfortable silence.

A knock at the door signalled that Sam was awake. He'd taken the room next to ours for the night, he did that sometimes, when we weren't in the middle of a case, in the rare instances we were having some down time. I called out for him to enter and he came in with his own cup of coffee and half a bagel covered in cream cheese. Dean's phone rang and broke the moment, he reached over to grab it off the table beside him, keeping one arm wrapped around me. Sam sat on the chair by the bed, taking a sip of coffee. Dean looked at phone, obviously not recognising the number showing up on the screen.

With a shrug, he flipped the phone open, putting it to his ear. "Hello?" I couldn't make out the voice on the other side, my breath caught in my throat, the way it always did whenever one of our phones rang – would this be the day John resurfaced? Every time I forgot to breathe.

"Oh right, yeah. Jerry. How are you? The poltergeist isn't back is it?" Dean said, glancing down at me. My spine stiffened a little at the sound of Jerry's name. Sam sat forward, curious. I'd told him a little about our time in Kittanning, the time the poltergeist threw me through a second-storey window. I'd nearly died.

"Ah, good, good." Dean said, shaking his head at me, I relaxed, releasing the breath I'd been holding, but I didn't move from Dean. I suddenly felt chilled to the bone. "What is it?" Dean asked further. There was a short answer and he hung up the phone.

"What is it?" I asked, echoing Dean's last question. He looked down at me, then up at Sam.

"Wouldn't say, wants to talk in person." Dean answered. Sam looked at us both and I sat up, unhappily peeling myself away from Dean. Dean sighed, swinging his legs over the side of the bed to stand up. "We got some driving to do." He said heading for the bathroom, I heard the sound of the shower being turned on. I looked over at Sam, his hair was still wet, he had on fresh clothes. I smiled at him and he threw me a smile in return. He looked tired too. We'd have to figure out this insomnia and nightmares soon, before Dean was the only one with any energy. The chill in my bones hadn't abated, I wanted a long hot shower.

"Mind if I use your shower?" I asked, _Dean will be ages, _I thought but left it unspoken. Sam laughed and tossed me the key to his room with a nod.

* * *

**Hangar  
**_**Later that day**_

There was a storm coming in, the clouds overhead looked dark and angry. I shivered, still feeling chilled to my bones and pulled my jacket tighter around me. I could see Jerry standing outside the hangar as we pulled up. He didn't look that different. Average height, which left him considerably shorter than Sam and Dean. Stocky build, but not overweight, receding hairline. He looked important in his shirt and tie, a lanyard around his neck carried his security clearance.

He smiled when he saw us pull up and came to welcome us. Sam was out of the car first.

"Thanks for making the trip so quick. You must be Sam." Jerry said, shaking the latter's hand.

"Yeah, that's me." Sam answered warmly.

I stepped out of the back seat of the car, my eyes rising to meet Jerry's and he took a deep breath, taking me in.

"Beth..." He whispered. "Hey, it's good to see you!" He said coming around the door to give me an awkward hug. He stepped back suddenly. "Sorry – it's just, it's good to see you doing so well. After..." His voice dropped off and we all left the rest unsaid. _After I'd nearly died._

"Hey Jerry... you're looking good." I smiled, breaking the mood. I liked the little man, he genuinely cared for people, which came far and few between these days.

"So what's this all about Jerry?" Dean asked, straight to the point, leaning on the top of the car. The other man sobered, looking over at Dean. Things seemed strained between them, Dean had told me once that he struggled separating Jerry from the job that had taken us to Kittanning.

"Follow me." Jerry said, by way of answer. We all shrugged and did as bidden while the man led us into the hangar.

"Tell you something," Jerry was saying to Sam who had moved up next to him. "If it wasn't for these guys I probably wouldn't be alive. Your Dad said you were off at college. Is that right?"

"Yeah, I was. I'm – taking some time off." Sam answered elusively.

"Well, he was real proud of you. I could tell. He talked about you all the time." Jerry said, leading us past a bunch of plane turbines and other equipment.

"He did?" Sam asked, surprised.

"Yeah, you bet he did." Jerry nodded, turning toward some offices in the back. "Oh, hey, you know I tried to get a hold of him, but I couldn't. How's he doing anyway?" Jerry looked back at Dean.

"He's um, wrapped up in a job right now." Dean answered, his body language was softening as Jerry talked. Dean was slowly coming back to himself.

"Well, we're missing the old man, but we get Sam. Even trade, huh?" Jerry said turning to face us as he walked backwards.

We all chuckled and Sam looked uncomfortable. "Nah, not by a long shot." Sam replied.

"I got something I want you guys to hear." Jerry said, leading us into his office. He sat down at his computer, inserting a CD into the disk player and closing it.

"Normally I wouldn't have access to this. It's the cockpit voice records for United Britannia flight 2485. It was one of ours." He explained.

The recording started to play over the computer speakers and we all leaned forward a little to listen.

_"Mayday! Mayday! Repeat! 2485 … immediate instruction … may be experiencing some mechanical failure..."_ A loud whooshing noise, almost like a roar sounded over the top of the voices on the recording and then suddenly stopped.

"Took off from here," Jerry said sullenly. "Crashed about two hundred miles south. Now, they're saying mechanical failure. Cabin de-pressurised somehow. Nobody knows why. Over a hundred people on board, only seven got out alive. Pilot was one. His name is Chuck Lambert, he's a good friend of mine. Chuck is, uh... well, he's pretty broken up about it. Like it was his fault."

"You don't think it was?" Sam asked.

"No I don't." Jerry said shaking his head. I was silently going through the possibilities in my mind. Plane crashes, not really our area.

"Jerry, we're going to need passenger manifests, um, a list of survivors." I said, leaning on the back of Sam's chair.

"Right...and, uh, any way we can take a look at the wreckage?" Dean asked.

"The other stuff is no problem. But the wreckage... guys, the NTSB has it locked down in an evidence warehouse. No way I've got that kind of clearance." Jerry replied looking at us, he really wanted to help but it was above his pay grade.

Dean nodded and inclined his head. "No problem." He said dismissively.

* * *

**Copy Jack Store**

I glanced out the window, looking at Sam and Dean who were waiting outside near the car. A pretty blond walked out of the store ahead of me as I collected the rest of my things, Dean gave her an appraising look and turned to Sam, gesturing with his head. I laughed to myself, _some things never change. _It was a comfort to see that at least one of us was his normal, incorrigible self.

I exited the store and almost ran into an attractive man passing on the street. He stopped and looked at me.

"Hey." He said with a smile. I smiled back.

"Hi," I said with a wink, then kept walking over to the Impala. Dean was giving me an amused look. I turned innocent eyes to him, but allowed my challenge to show in my smile.

"You've been in there forever!" He said with a groan, not taking the bait.

"Hey, you can't rush perfection." I said, brandishing three new ID badges.

"Homeland Security?" Sam asked, taking one of the badges and examining it. "That's pretty illegal, even for us." He said, concerned.

"Yeah well, it's something new." Dean said, taking his own badge from me. "People haven't seen it a thousand times." He nodded approvingly and moved to get in the car, we followed.

"All right, so what do we got?" Dean asked, slamming the door shut and getting comfortable in his seat.

"Well there's definitely EVP on the cockpit voice recorder." Sam said pulling out his laptop. "Listen." He hit a button and the recording started to play. A scratchy voice now spoke over the top of the others, Sam had pulled out the message.

"_No survivors!"_ The voice said.

Dean smirked, his right eyebrow raising slightly at the words. "No survivors? What's that supposed to mean? There were seven survivors."

"Got me." Sam shrugged. I sat back in my seat, crossing my arms, thinking.

"So what are you thinking?" I asked. "A haunted flight?"

"There's a long history of spirits and death omens on planes and ships, like phantom travellers." Sam said. Dean was nodding agreement.

"Or remember flight 401?" Sam said.

"Right. The one that crashed, the airline salvaged some of its parts, put it in other planes, then the spirit of the pilot and copilot haunted those flights." He looked back at me and I nodded.

"Maybe we have a similar case here." I said.

"All right, so, survivors, which one do we want to talk to first?" Dean asked, taking the list in his hands and looking through the names. Sam pointed in the direction of the paper.

"Third on the list: Max Jaffey." He answered quickly. He'd already thought about it. I leaned forward to look at the list.

"Why him?" Dean asked.

"Well, for one, he's from around here. And two, if anyone saw anything weird, he did." Sam answered.

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"Well, I spoke to his mother." Sam said. "And she told me where to find him... Riverfront Psychiatric Hospital." He looked at us both pointedly. I exhaled a long breath and inclined my head. He had a point. Nothing like a psychiatric hospital for someone who had seen something they couldn't explain.

* * *

**Riverfront Psychiatric Hospital**

Sam had waited in the car, wanting to do some research on the other survivors, locations, and so on – in case we didn't get anywhere with this one. Dean and I were with Max, walking in the gardens. Max was limping with a cane between the two of us. He was in his 20s, young, dark hair to match his dark troubled eyes.

"I don't understand. I already spoke with Homeland Security," he said.

"Right. Some new information has come up. So if you could just answer a couple questions..." Dean explained. We walked a little further and the young man nodded his agreement. It was good to be in the sun again, but I brought my attention back to the task at hand.

"Just before the plane went down, did you notice anything... unusual?" I asked of the young man.

"Like what?" Max asked.

"Strange lights, weird noises, maybe. Voices." Dean suggested.

"No, nothing." Max said, shaking his head, looking down. We came to an outdoor setting, and sat down on the wooden chairs.

"Mr Joffey -" Dean said but was interrupted.

"Jaffey." Max said.

"Jaffey." Dean corrected. "You checked yourself in here, right?"

Max nodded. "I was a little stressed. I survived a plane crash." Max was looking at Dean with a look of disbelief, Dean was having none of it.

"Uh huh. And that's what terrified you? That's what you were afraid of?" Dean pushed. Max was looking uncomfortable, his body language slumped, he was twitching.

"I.. I don't want to talk about this any more," he said.

"See, I think maybe you did see something up there. We need to know what," Dean said.

"No. No, I was … delusional. Seeing things." Max disagreed.

Dean looked over at me, the frustration clear in his eyes. "He was seeing things," he said to me mockingly before looking away.

I looked at Max, reaching my hand across the table, but not touching him.

"It's ok. Can you just tell us what you _thought _you saw, please." I asked, looking into his eyes. Max sighed, looking down at the table, at my hands, before speaking.

"There was... this – man. And, uh, he had these... eyes - these, uh... black eyes." My heart skipped a beat, but I fought back the moment of panic. Max continued. "And I saw him – or I _thought _I saw him..." His voice trailed off.

"What?" Dean prompted.

"He opened the emergency exit!" Max said strongly, looking up at Dean. Dean didn't say anything, his mind seemed to be racing with this new information. "But that's … that's impossible, right? I looked it up. There's something like two tonnes of pressure on that door." Max said.

Dean shrugged. "Yeah," he said.

"This man, did he seem to appear and disappear rapidly? It would look something like a mirage?" I asked.

"What are you, nuts?" Max asked, looking at me with a smirk. I fought back a smile, tilting my head at him.

"He was a passenger. He was sitting right in front of me." Max said.

We thanked Max for his time and got up to leave. Dean took my arm and steered me through the side garden toward the front gate.

"Black eyes..." I muttered, shaking my head. My skin had gone clammy and I was finding it hard to breathe, that dizziness from the witch doctor attack coming to my mind. I held on to Dean's arm to steady myself.

"Hey... woah..." Dean said, stopping and turning me to face him.

"Black eyes can be a lot of things. Let's not jump to conclusions." He said gently, looking me in the eyes. I nodded slowly. He was right. He looked at me a moment longer, assessing me. I pulled my shoulders back and nodded at him, starting to move away, but he shook his head and pulled me into a hug, holding me close. I sighed and leaned in to him, softening against the feel of his chest, wrapping my arms around him. I buried my face into the crook of his neck and inhaled deeply, his scent relaxing me. After a few moments he pulled back and looked at me again.

"You ok?" Dean asked. I nodded and smiled at him. He kept a hand on my elbow as we turned back toward the car, and I was grateful for the support. We made our way out the gate and back to where Sam was waiting for us.

* * *

**Phelps House**

We'd looked up George Phelps' house and were sitting out the front of it in the Impala. This was the home of the man with the black eyes, as described by Max.

"Here we are. George Phelps, seat 20C." Sam said.

Dean was contemplating what we'd just heard. "Hmmm. Man, I don't care how strong you are," he said as we all got out of the car. "Even yoked up on PCP or something, no way you can open up an emergency door during a flight."

"Not if you're human. But maybe this guy George was something else. Some kind of creature, maybe, in human form?" Sam said trying to come up with an explanation.

"That look like a creature's lair to you?" Dean asked, inclining his head toward the side of the road. We all turned to look at the house in front of us. It was a perfectly normal looking, two-story house with gables and a little balcony at the top. Climbing roses circled round the columns of the patio at the front door. The garden was a hive of activity, flowers blooming. Not a thing was out of place, just a normal, every day suburban house.

* * *

Dean and Sam were sitting across from Mrs Phelps in the living room. I was standing, looking at a framed photograph that I'd picked up off a table.

"This is your late husband?" I asked, bringing the photo over and holding it up. Mrs Phelps was sitting on the couch opposite the boys, she was in her forties, long brown hair, a little green lacy camisole on covered up by a green cardigan. She had an angel pendant on a chain around her neck. I subconsciously moved a hand to my own neck, my rosary was tucked safely under my black t-shirt, covered by my hair.

"Yes, that was my George." She said.

"And you said he was a... dentist?" Dean asked.

Mrs Phelps nodded. "Mmhmm.. He was headed to a convention in Denver." She paused, looking down at her hands. "Do you know that he was petrified to fly? For him to go like that..." Her voice trailed off, her lips quivering.

"How long were you married?" Sam asked.

"Thirteen years." She replied with a smile, looking at him.

"In all that time, did you ever notice anything... strange about him, anything out of the ordinary?" Sam asked.

Mrs Phelps looked at Dean, then at me, contemplating.

"Well... he had acid reflux. It that's what you mean?" She said looking back at Sam.

Dean looked at me trying to hide a smile.

We'd seen ourselves out. Walking down the stairs, Dean was shaking his head. "A middle-aged dentist with an ulcer is not exactly evil personified." He said stepping on to the side walk.

"You know what we need to do is get inside that NTSB warehouse, check out the wreckage." Sam said.

"Ok. But if you're going that route, you'd better look the part." I said with a grin. The boys just looked at me, questioningly.

* * *

**Suit Rental Shop**

Sam and Dean exited the suit rental shop dressed in fresh black suits, white shirts and black ties. They looked like they'd just walked out of their prom_. _Sam adjusted his collar and Dean looked down at himself, walking up to me with a sigh.

"Man, I look like one of the Blues Brothers." Dean complained to me.

"No you don't." I said with a quick kiss to his cheek. Part of me had to admit, I was a little more out with the public displays of affection now John was missing. I felt a bit guilty, but there was also a strange comfort in being able to act on my feelings, just be myself with Dean, no judgements, Sam never said a thing.

"You look more like a seventh-grader at his first dance." Sam was saying. Dean looked down at himself again.

"I hate this thing!" He said vehemently, starting to walk back toward the car.

"Hey, you want into that warehouse or not?" Sam asked, walking along side him.

I was already sliding into the back of the car, tossing the keys to Dean who caught them deftly.

"Now tell me again, why are you not in a suit?" Dean asked me, getting into the driver's seat, Sam was sitting shotgun.

"Because I'm your get away driver." I smiled. He grimaced, turning the key in the ignition.

"Sorry baby." He muttered to the Impala. I scoffed and punched him in the shoulder.

"Hey!" I exclaimed. Dean just shrugged and pulled away from the curb.

* * *

**NTSB Evidence Warehouse**

I watched as Dean and Sam walked up to the warehouse, flashing their badges to the security guard. They were let straight through. I settled back into the car to watch the entrance, waiting, curious to see what they'd find.

The minutes ticked by and I tried to still the growing disquiet in my mind. There was something very uncomfortable about this case, I couldn't quite put my finger on it though.

They'd been gone about 15 minutes when I noticed an SUV pulling up to the warehouse. Two men in suits got out and walked confidently up to the door. I was already dialling Dean on the cellphone before they even got to the security guard.

"Yeah?" Dean's voice answered the phone.

"You got company." I said quickly, starting the car up and pulling slowly around to the side of the building.

"Right... thanks. We'll be right out." Dean answered, hanging up.

I was looking for where Dean and Sam might come out and spotted them walking casually around the corner of the warehouse, they'd found a way out the back. Suddenly an alarm was blaring and people mobilised all over the compound, most of them heading indoors. Dean and Sam broke into a run for the gate. I saw Dean pull off his jacket and throw it over the barbed wire on top of the fence, he easily climbed over the fence, Sam following. He reached back and grabbed the jacket, slinging it over his shoulder.

I pulled the car up beside them and they climbed in.

"Well, these monkey suits do come in handy!" Dean laughed. I smiled, pulling away from the fence and heading back to town. No one followed us.

* * *

**Jerry's Office**

I was peering through a microscope at the yellow stuff that Dean had collected off the emergency door handle at the warehouse. Dean and Sam were looking at the same thing on the screen in front of us.

"Thus stuff is covered in sulphur." I said.

"You're sure?" Sam asked.

I shrugged, and waved a hand at the microscope. "Take a look for yourself."

Sam stepped up next to me and looked into the microscope.

"Hmm." Dean pondered. I looked at him but he was avoiding my gaze.

"Can we talk about the elephant in the room now?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. Dean looked up at this, a sigh escaping his mouth.

"Demonic possession?" He asked, still sceptical.

"Well, there's not too many things that leave behind a sulphuric residue." I said uncomfortably, rubbing my right arm with my left hand. There was always a tingle in that arm, I don't know why, but it had been that way since the possession. Every now and then it would flare up to a pain, but most of the time I just ignored it, like white noise in every day waking life.

"It _would_ explain how a mortal man would have the strength to open up an emergency hatch." Sam said, he was frowning.

"If the guy was possessed, it's possible." Dean conceded. He looked at me concerned.

"This goes way beyond what we've seen before." Dean said. "I mean it's one thing to possess a person... but to use them to take down an entire plane?" I shuddered at the implications.

"You ever hear of something like this before?" Sam asked of us both.

Dean shook his head. "Never." I answered quietly.

* * *

**Motel Room**

We were in full research mode. Getting a room together, we'd set it up as home base. I taped another article to the wall along with the other half dozen already there, my gaze falling to the pictures of a handful of demonic pictures. Dozens more were strewn across the bed. Sam was sitting at the computer, looking at something. Dean was sitting on the one clean bed, leaning forward and reading from a book in a pile sitting on the other bed.

"So, every religion in every world culture has the concept of demons and demonic possession, right?" He looked at me specifically. "I mean, Christian, Native American, Hindu, you name it."

"Yeah, but none of them describe anything like this." I answered.

"Well that's not exactly true. According to this, in Japanese beliefs, certain demons are behind certain disasters, both natural and man-made. One causes earthquakes, another causes disease." Sam said.

"So what, this one causes plane crashes?" I asked, rubbing my temples. Sam just shrugged.

"All right. So, what? We have a demon that's evolved with the times and found a way to ratchet up the body count?" Dean said standing up from the bed.

"Yeah. You know, who knows how many planes it's brought down before this one?" Sam said.

Dean snorted and started to pace in the small gap between the beds.

"I don't know man. This isn't our normal gig. I mean, demons, they don't want anything." He paused in front of me. "Just death and destruction for its own sake." He said quietly.

"This is big." I said, I was running the beads of my rosary through my fingers at the side of my neck. It was a small comfort. "I wish Dad was here." I whispered. Dean pulled me into his arms, looking over at Sam who was giving me a worried look.

"Yeah. Me too." Dean said, holding me close, resting his chin on top of my head. I took a couple of deep breaths, fighting off a sense of rising panic. I really just wanted John back to lead us.

Dean's phone rang and he pulled away to go answer it.

"Hello?" There was a paused as he listened to the other person.

"Oh, hey Jerry." He said followed by another pause. "Wha – Jerry, I'm sorry. What happened?" Sam and I looked up, instantly hooked into the conversation. "Jerry, hang in there all right? We'll catch up with you soon." Dean hung up, looking at our expectant faces.

"Another crash?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, let's go." Dean said, grabbing his jacket.

"Where?" I asked. Dean looked at us, raising his eyebrow.

"Nazareth."

* * *

**Nazareth**

Nazareth was a sleepy little town on a flat piece of land surrounded by mountains. As we made it into town there was a plume of black smoke rising out of one of the many fields circling the town. We pulled up as close as we could get to the field and exited the vehicle.

"Hey Sammy, why don't you go see what you can get off the wreckage with the EMF? I need to talk to Beth for a minute." Dean said. Sam nodded, grabbing the walkman and heading off across the field.

I turned to observe Dean, leaning against the car. He went around to the back of the trunk and started rummaging through the hidden armoury.

"What are you doing Dean?" I asked, coming to join him.

"I'm looking for something in Dad's stuff..." He trailed off, pulling out a pouch of charms and amulets.

"Aha!" He said, rummaging through the bag. He pulled out a single black velvet pouch, and opened it, a small amulet with a clip on it fell into his palm. My eyes narrowed, I had seen it before, had been my father's, he'd given one to me that had been identical. Unwelcome memories sprang into my mind, that amulet against my father's shirt, blood spattered across it.

"Dean... I'm not wearing that." I said firmly.

"Yes, you are." He said, looking me in the eyes.

"No, I'm not!" I said. I turned away and started walking toward Sam, tears coming into my eyes.

"Beth! Come on," Dean was hurrying to catch up to me, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me round to face him. "Come on, this is a _demon _we're talking about." Dean said. "I saw something in Dad's journal a few weeks ago, but I didn't want to push, we didn't need it before... before now." I paused, looking at Dean. He held up the amulet, it was of a pentacle, fire swirled around it. "This is a protective amulet against demons, Beth."

I scoffed. "Well a lot of good it did, Dean!"

"You weren't wearing it." He said quietly, taking me by the arms and looking into my eyes. His hands moved up to grasp my face on either side. "_You _weren't wearing it." He said again. The realisation settling in.

"No, no you're wrong." I said pulling away. "It's just another useless charm that didn't do my father any damn good, along with everything else in his damn church!" I was looking around, desperate, wanting to just curl up and not remember. Not recall how it had felt to have that _thing _inside of me. To lose control of my body and still be completely aware of what I was doing. I didn't want to remember the sickly feeling as I'd driven that knife into my father's side, the blood running down over my hands as I'd laughed, and laughed, while the light faded from his eyes.

I ran a shaky hand through my hair, blowing a hard breath out of my mouth. Dean was standing near me, but not touching me, allowing me space to come to grips with what he had just said.

"Please." He said, looking at me. The please caught my attention. Dean never begged.

"Please... just wear it, for me." He said, stepping a little bit closer. I looked away, thinking, wrapping my arms across my chest, hugging myself. I absently looked at Sam who was sifting through the wreckage, walkman in hand. He glanced over at us, a puzzled look on his face, but then went back to what he was doing.

"OK..." I said softly, giving in. Dean moved up to me, kissing my forehead.

He pulled at the rosary around my neck, freeing it from under my shirt so it was hanging down over my breasts. Fiddling with the clasp on the amulet, he clipped it to the same loop of silver holding the crucifix to the end of the rosary. I cringed, looking at it.

"Dean, that's almost blasphemous." I said, looking at the pentacle hanging next to the cross. He chuckled.

"Come on, you know better than that. This symbol is ancient, it was used by Christians as well," he said.

"It was," I agreed. "To represent the five wounds of Jesus." I said quietly, fingering the amulet, deep in thought.

"Well there you go," he said, pulling me against him, his arm around my shoulder. He stopped briefly to brush his lips against mine, pulling back to look me in the eyes.

"Thank you." He said, his eyes showing that he really hadn't wanted to get into a fight over this.

I sighed, dropping the rosary back under my shirt where it was hidden from view. I mustered up a smile for the gorgeous man by my side and was rewarded with a smile back. "I love you." I said, wrapping my arm around his waist.

"Yeah, I know...right back at ya." He said with a wink, kissing me quickly and leading me to the car. Sam was finished and we had work to do.

* * *

**Jerry's Office**

Jerry was looking through the microscope at the newly collected specimens from the plane crash. Dean was standing over him, his arms crossed. Jerry stood up, looking at us.

"Sulphur?" Dean asked. Jerry nodded.

"Well, that's great. All right, that's two plane crashes involving Chuck Lambert. This demon sounds like it was after him," he concluded, rocking back on his heels, hands in his pockets.

Sam and I were sitting behind Jerry's desk using his computer. I was tapping away at the keyboard and Sam was looking over my shoulder at the news reports and other assorted documents I had open.

"With all due respect to Chuck, if that's the case, that would be the good news." Sam said, looking up at Dean and Jerry.

"What's the bad news?" Dean asked.

"Chuck's plane went down exactly forty minutes into the flight. So did flight 2485." I said, still staring at the screen.

"Forty minutes? What does that mean?" Jerry asked.

"It's biblical numerology," Sam explained.

"You know, Noah's ark, it rained for forty days. The number means death." Dean finished. I thought about it, forty was such a recurring theme in the Bible, not just around death, but in this case, the shoe seemed to fit with that theory.

"We went back into the records. There have been six plane crashes over the last decade that all went down exactly forty minutes in," I said, looking up from the screen.

"Any survivors?" Dean asked. I shook my head.

"No. Or not until now, at least." Sam said. "Now remember what the EVP said on the cockpit recorder?"

"No survivors." I said, sitting back in my chair. Dean was thinking, starting to pace.

"It's going after all the survivors. It's trying to finish the job!"

* * *

**Impala**

Dean was driving, of course. Sam was in the front seat talking on the phone to one of the survivors on the phone. I listened to my own phone and was denied an answer at the end of the line I was calling. I hung up with a sigh and looked out the window, it was mid-afternoon, but it was already getting dark. I hated Winter.

"Really? Well, thank you for taking our survey, and if you do plan to fly, please don't forget your friends at United Britannia Airlines. Thanks." Sam hung up the phone.

"All right. That takes care of Blaine Sanderson and Dennis Holloway. They're not flying any time soon." Sam informed us.

"So our only wild card is the flight attendant Amanda Walker." Dean said.

"Right. Her sister Karen said her flight leaves Indianapolis at eight pm. It's her first night back on the job." I said from the back.

"That sounds like just our luck." Dean said, hitting the accelerator and causing the Impala to lurch forward.

"Dean, this is a five-hour drive, man, even with you behind the wheel." Sam pointed out.

"Call Amanda's cellphone again, see if we can't head her off at the pass." Dean instructed.

"I already left her three voice messages. She must have turned her cellphone off." I said, leaning forward so I could be involved in the conversation.

"God, we're never gonna make it." Sam said, running a hand through his hair.

"We'll make it." Dean said, pushing the Impala just a little harder.

* * *

**Indianapolis Airport  
**_**4.5 hours later ;)**_

Dean pulled the car into the airport parking lot and we all jumped out. He was already running for the entrance when Sam got his attention. "Dean!"

"What?!" Dean asked, slowing down to walk backwards toward the door, looking back at us.

"Dean we're about to walk into an _airport!" _Sam said pointedly. Dean stopped and stared at Sam. He shook his head. Sam shook his head back at him with another pointed look which Dean seemed to understand. Dean shook his head again with sigh, this time returning to the Impala and opening the trunk. We watched as he pulled out a gun, several knives and a few other weapons from various sections of his clothing, tossing them into the trunk before closing it again.

"I feel naked," he said, throwing his arms up in the air before walking past us. Sam and I exchanged an amused look, shaking our heads and following him. We headed straight for the departures board.

"There. Boarding in 30 minutes," I said, locating the flight on the board.

"Okay. We still have some cards to play. We need to find a phone," Dean said looking about and spotting a courtesy phone, he was immediately heading for it.

"Hi. Gate thirteen," Dean said. "I'm trying to contact an Amanda Walker. She's a flight attendant on flight, um... flight 424."

We heard the announcement go over the PA system, calling Amanda to the courtesy phone. Dean was looking anxious. "Miss Walker. Hi, this is Dr James Hetfield from St. Francis Memorial Hospital. We have a Karen Walker here." Dean said when she came on the line.

There was a pause as the other woman obviously responded.

"Nothing serious, just a minor car accident, but she was injured, so – " He broke off, a frown crossing his face.

"Uh, well... there must be some mistake." Dean said. I hit my forehead with my palm. This was not going well. Sam looked on anxiously.

"Guilty as charged." Dean said chuckling, shrugging at me. I frowned as I had no idea what was going on or the direction the conversation was going, but it didn't seem to be doing in the direciton we wanted it. Sam and I stepped aside, my hand on his arm.

"We have to get on that plane," I whispered to him, he was nodding.

"He's really sorry," Dean was saying. "Yes, but... he really needs to see you tonight, so -" He listened a little more. "Don't be like that. Come on. The guy's a mess. Really. It's pathetic." Another pause.

"No, no. Wait, Amanda! Amanda!" He yelled into the phone. But she'd obviously hung up. "Dammit! So close." He said to us.

"All right. Time for plan B." Sam said, looking at me. "We're getting on that plane."

Dean had stopped moving and was looking at us wide-eyed. "Whoa, whoa, now just hold on a second." He said, holding his hand out to Sam and I.

"Dean, that plane is leaving with over a hundred passengers on board, and if we're right, that plane is gonna crash." Sam said.

"I know." Dean said exasperated, his eyes still wide and anxious.

"Okay. So we're getting on the plane, we need to find that demon and exorcise it. I'll get the tickets." Sam looked at me. "You guys get whatever you can out of the trunk. Whatever will make it through security. Meet me back here in five minutes." I nodded and started to head toward the exit.

Dean hadn't moved. I paused and looked back at him.

"Are you ok?" I asked, noticing a thin sheen of sweat starting to form on his forehead.

"No, not really." Dean admitted with a shrug.

"What? What's wrong?" Sam asked. I came to stand next to Dean, hand on his arm.

"Well, I kind of have this problem with, uh..." Dean's voice trailed off.

"Flying?" I asked, looking at him with disbelief.

"It's never really been an issue until now." Dean said anxiously, waving his arms around.

"You're joking, right?" Sam said.

"Do I look like I'm joking? Why do you think I drive everywhere?" I looked at him, his eyes were wide and white, he was terrified. I'd never seen him like this over something so trivial.

Sam took a few steps, hand on his chin, thinking. He looked up.

"All right. All right. Beth and I will go." Sam said.

"What?" Dean said, looking wildly at us both. I nodded agreement with Sam.

"We can do this one on our own." Sam said.

"What are you nuts? I'm not letting you guys get on that plane. You said it yourself, the plane's gonna crash!" He was frantically looking at us.

"Dean. We can either do this all together, or Sam and I will do it on our own. But we're getting on that plane. There is no other option here." I said, grabbing his arm.

"Come on! Really?" Dean said, sighing, stepping back and looking around the terminal, reaching for any other reason not to get on that plane. "Man... I hate it when you both gang up on me!"

* * *

**Flight 424**

I was sitting in between Sam and Dean, we were taxi-ing across the tarmac. Dean had the aisle seat and was flipping through the safety card, anxious and distressed. Sam leaned across me to look his brother in the eye.

"Dean. Just try to relax." He said.

"Just try to shut up!" Dean snapped back.

The plane took off and Dean grabbed my hand squeezing it tightly. I threw him an encouraging smile and leaned back into the power of the take off. While I hadn't really flown much, once or twice on short trips, I loved the feeling as the wheels lifted off the ground and we were airborne. Sam shook his head. Dean was humming to himself, still frozen in place, hand tightly on mine.

"Are you humming Metallica?" I asked with a grin.

He looked at me, taking a breath. "Calms me down." He explained. I nodded, amusement in my eyes.

"Look, man," Sam said from the seat beside me. "I get you're nervous, all right? But you gotta stay focused." He whispered.

"Okay." Dean breathed, making an obvious effort to calm down his breathing.

"We got thirty-two minutes and counting to track this thing down, or whoever it's possessing, anyway, and perform a full-on exorcism." Sam continued. He met my eyes and I let go of Dean's hand, reaching under the chair in front of me for my bag.

"Yeah, on a crowded plane. That's gonna be easy." Dean said from beside me.

"Just take it one step at a time, all right?" I said, sitting back into my chair. "Now, who is it possessing?" I asked, casting an assessing eye over the multitude of passengers on the plane.

"It's usually gonna be somebody with some sort of weakness, you know, a chink in the armour that the demon can worm through." He looked at me, an apology in his eyes. "Somebody with an addiction or some sort of emotional distress." I thought back to how the demon had managed to get into me, I'd been upset with my father for interfering with my boyfriend at the time, he had forbidden me to continue seeing him, saying I was too young for romantic involvements, I should devote my time to my studies. I'd been heart broken, angry, furious at him. It had made me vulnerable at the worst time possible.

"Well, this is Amanda's first flight after the crash. If I were her, I'd be pretty messed up." I said quietly. The boys took this in. Dean turned to the flight attendant near us.

"Excuse me, are you Amanda?" He asked.

"No, I'm not." She replied, her eyes smiling at him.

"Oh, my mistake." Dean said, looking back at the seat in front of him, for the first time ever Dean Winchester hadn't flirted with a pretty woman... I noticed this with a bit of concern, he was scared. His breathing was still fast, but he'd calmed down considerably. He looked to the back of the plane, there was another flight attendant.

"All right, well that's got to be Amanda back there, so I'll go talk to her, and, uh, I'll get a read on her mental state." Dean said.

"What if she's already possessed?" Sam asked.

Dean rummaged around in his bag and pulled out a Virgin Mary shaped bottle of water. "I brought holy water!" He said with a smile.

"No!" Sam said, snatching the bottle out of his hand and tucking it into his hoodie.

"I think we can go more subtle." Sam said, looking at me questioningly.

I nodded. "If she's possessed, she'll flinch at the name of God." I answered the unspoken question.

"Oh. Nice." Dean smiled, standing up and turning to go.

"Hey!" Sam said, getting his attention. Dean raised an eyebrow. "Say it in Latin." Sam reminded him.

Dean held a hand up to his chest, delivering Sam a scoffing look. "I know." He turned to go again.

"Ok." Sam said, he was getting to be just as nervous as Dean. I shook my head. He looked up again.

"Dean!" Sam called out again.

Dean came back to us. "What?!" He asked exasperated.

"Uh, in Latin, it's Christo." Sam said.

"Dude, I know! I'm not an idiot!" Dean countered, his hazel eyes flaring with frustration. He turned to make his way back to the end of the plane. I turned to watch as he went. He was holding on to the seats as he went, _still nervous,_ I thought. _But he's ok. _Dean paused in the doorway and started talking to Amanda, turning on the charm. He was back there a few minutes before he returned to our seats, shrugging.

"All right, well, she's got to be the most well-adjusted person on the planet." Dean said, sitting down with a sigh of relief.

"You said Christo?" Sam asked.

"Yeah."

"And?" Sam prompted.

"There's no demon in her. There's no demon getting in her." Dean replied.

I took this in, thinking, that sick feeling in my stomach had returned. I found I was subconsciously fingering the rosary through my shirt.

"So if it's on the plane, it can be anyone. Anywhere." I said, looking around. We hit turbulence and Dean grabbed the seat arms.

"Oh come on! That can't be normal!" He said, freaked.

"Hey, hey, it's just a little turbulence," I said gently.

"Beth, this plane is going to crash, ok? So quit treating me like I'm friggin' four." He said forcefully. I raised my eyebrow at him giving him a hard look. He looked back at me, fear in his eyes.

"You need to calm down." I stated very firmly.

"Well I'm sorry, I can't." He said said, his face in mine.

"Yes, you can." Sam said from across me.

"Look, stow the touchy-feely, self-help yoga crap, it's not helping." Dean said angrily.

Sam leaned across me, his eyes suddenly looked very much like John's when he was about to give us a lecture. "Listen, if you're panicked, you're wide open to demonic possession, so you _need_ to _calm_ yourself down. _Right now_." Sam said over my bowed head. I had started flipping through John's journal which I'd dug out of my bag.

Beside me, Dean seemed to react to Sam's words, swallowing and taking a long, slow breath, visibly making the effort to calm down.

Looking at them both I decided to jump in with a distraction. "OK. So here's the exorcism that I think we need to do. _The Rituale Romanum." _I said.

"That's the same one..." Dean started to say.

"...that you used on me. Yeah." I finished, nodding.

"What do we do?" Sam asked.

"It's in two parts." I explained. "The first psalm expels the demon from the victim's body. It makes it manifest, which actually makes it more powerful." I closed my eyes, remembering what it had been like, felt like to have that evil forced from my body. To regain control of my limbs, my words, my actions.

"More powerful?" Sam asked.

"Yeah." Dean said sombrely. "It won't need to possess someone any more. It can just wreak havoc on its own." It was always risky, but we didn't have a choice. Not if we wanted to banish it for good.

"The second part sends it back to Hell once and for all." I said. Demons weren't really our thing. In fact, since my possession, we hadn't come across a single one except for one John had handled alone shortly after Sam had left for college. I was nervous. I wished I'd spent more time learning about them, but I'd wanted to ignore it, leave it in the past, never thinking we might cross paths again like this with a demon.

"First things first, we got to find it." Dean said, getting up with his 'walkman' in hand. He started to go slowly up the aisle, waving the EMF reader left and right. He got a few odd looks from the passengers, but no one said anything. Sam followed after him, Dean jumped when Sam clapped him on the shoulder and they exchanged words.

I was in my seat, looking around. There was an odd feeling in my stomach, it flipped when I caught sight of the co-pilot exiting the restroom ahead of Dean and Sam. I knew as soon as I saw him, some sixth sense urging me on. I got to my feet, hurrying to catch up to them. I reached Dean at the same time The EMF meter spiked, Dean had frozen, staring at the co-pilot, and I caught my breath, leaning in to the boys.

"What? What's wrong Beth?" Sam asked, looking at me.

Dean turned to the co-pilot, and I raised my finger to point. "Christo." I said at the co-pilot.

The co-pilot stopped, then turned slowly to face us. His eyes were black pits of tar. I gasped. With a smile the co-pilot went back into the cockpit and the door slammed shut behind him, the sound of the lock clicking into place.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean said beside me. He cast a look back at the end of the aisle, Amanda was in the galley. Without hesitating he started walking down the aisle toward her.

"She's not going to believe us." I said, following him.

"Twelve minutes!" Dean said frantically.

Amanda took in the sight of the three of us standing in front of her, a slightly amused look on her face.

"Oh, hi. Flight's not too bumpy for you I hope." She said, smiling at us. Sam closed the curtain behind us and I stood near it, keeping an eye on the aisle in case anyone approached.

"Actually, that's kind of what we need to talk to you about." Dean said, trying to appear like a normal, regular person, not someone who was just about to get into a crazy demon discussion.

"Um, okay. What can I do for you?" Amanda asked.

"All right, this is gonna sound nuts, but we just don't have time for the whole "the truth is out there" speech right now." Dean started, shaking his head. Amanda was gazing at him, not understanding a word of what he was saying.

Sam anxiously butted in. "All right, look, we know you were on flight 2485." Amanda's smile disappeared.

"Who are you guys?" She asked warily.

"Now, we've spoken to some of the other survivors. We know something brought down that plane and it wasn't a mechanical failure." Dean continued. "We need your help because we need to stop it from happening again. Here. Now."

Amanda tried to brush past Dean, "I'm sorry, I—I'm very busy. I have to go back..." Dean blocked her from leaving.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second. I'm not gonna hurt you, okay? But listen to me, uh...The pilot in 2485, Chuck Lambert. He's dead." Dean said quickly, trying to get her to understand the danger we were all in.

"Wait. What? What, Chuck is dead?" She asked, not believing us.

"He died in a plane crash about 9 hours ago. Now, that's two plane crashes in two months. That doesn't strike you as strange?" I asked from behind them at the curtain. I turned my eyes to her, trying to get her to trust us.

Amanda stuttered, not able to come up with an answer.

"Look, there was something wrong with 2485. Now maybe you sensed it, maybe you didn't. But there's something wrong with this flight, too." Sam was talking now, reaching out to her with his smooth trusting voice and eyes.

"Amanda, you have to believe us." Dean begged. She considered what we had said, her eyes flickering to the walls of the plane, but she was seeing another plane, another flight, and the memory of it haunted her. Her eyes widened and she nodded, rubbing her forehead with her hand.

"On...on 2485, there was this man. He...had these eyes." She said. The boys were nodding.

"Yes. That's exactly what we're talking about." Sam said encouragingly.

"I don't understand, what are you asking me to do?" She asked. She looked scared.

"Okay. The co-pilot, we need you to bring him back here." Dean said.

"Why? What does he have to do with anything?" She looked doubtful, still not sure of what we were asking.

"Don't have time to explain. We just need to talk to him. Okay?" Dean pushed her, urging her to get down to the cockpit.

"How am I supposed to go in the cockpit and get the co-pilot—?" She asked.

"Whatever it takes. Do whatever it takes. Tell him there's something broken back here, whatever will get him out of that cockpit." Sam said.

"Do you know that I could lose my job if you..." She was interrupted by Dean.

"Okay, well you're gonna lose a lot more if you don't help us out." Dean whispered anxiously, looking into her eyes. I looked at my watch. _Eight minutes._

Amanda hesitated for a moment and then seemed to reach a decision. She nodded, "Ok," and left the galley walking quickly down the aisle toward the cockpit. I watched as she knocked on the door and said something to the co-pilot. He was following her out. Sam pulled the holy water out of his hoodie. Dean handed me John's journal and I opened it to the exorcism page.

"Yeah, what's the problem?" The co-pilot asked, stepping into the galley. Dean acted instantly, punching him in the face and knocking him to the floor. Pinning him beneath his body, Sam put duct tape over his mouth.

"Wait. What are you doing? You said you were just going to talk to him!" Amanda said anxiously.

"We are gonna talk to him," Dean said, still holding the co-pilot down. Sam splashed holy water on the co-pilot's chest, and his skin began to hiss and sizzle, blistering and burning.

"Oh my god. What's wrong with him?" She exclaimed, taking all this in.

"Look. We need you calm. We need you outside the curtain." Sam said, pushing her toward the aisle. Amanda was struggling, unsure.

"Well, I don't underst—I don't know..." Sam gave her a final push behind the curtain.

"Don't let anybody in, okay? Can you do that? Can you do that? Amanda?" Sam said.

I had found the exorcism and started reading from the page. "Regna terrae...cantate Deo, psallite Domino—qui fertis ascendit, super caelum..."

Amanda had left. The copilot was still struggling, and Dean slugged him again in the face.

"Beth.." Dean growled, "I dunno how much longer I can hold him." Sam poured more holy water on the man, the demon inside him reacted, growling through the duct tape. I resumed reading, my finger following the words as I read them.

"caeli ad Orientem. Ecce dabit..." I continued as Dean fought against the co-pilot, Sam sprinkling more water on him.

The demon broke free from Dean's hold, knocking the water bottle flying into the corner. He pushed Dean back and hit Sam against the wall, lashing out with a kick and sending the journal flying from my hands. I grabbed the journal back, crawling away from him to the corner of the galley and frantically looked for my place again.

Dean threw himself at the demon, but it knocked him off and pulled the tape from his mouth. He grabbed Sam by the collar, pulling him down to face him, eyes pitch black and a distorted, evil voice coming from his mouth.

"I know what happened to your girlfriend! She must have died screaming! Even now, she's burning!"

Dean recovered from the hit and punched the demon. Sam and I were staring, stunned.

"Beth!" Dean yelled at me, startling me out of my thoughts. I looked down and began reading again, "voci suae vocum virtutis tribuite virtutem deo." I finished the first part of the exorcism. Sam helped Dean hold down the demon and we all watched as the demon exited the copilot's body in a cloud of black smoke. It disappeared into a vent while the co-pilot collapsed on the floor.

"Where'd it go?" Sam asked.

"It's in the plane." He looked at me. "Hurry up, we got to finish it."

I nodded and started reading the rest of the exorcism. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio, infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica. Ergo draco maledicte, et omnis legio diabolica, adjuramus te. " _We adjure you!_ I was reading as fast as I could, the lights started flickering around us as I uttered the last few words.

The plane suddenly fell and I stumbled, dropping the journal. It slid out under the curtain into the aisle. Everyone was screaming as we started losing altitude. I crawled after the journal, struggling to reach it, knowing I had to otherwise we were all going to die. In the flickering lights of the cabin, I saw it lodged under a seat and dove, grabbing the journal.

Finding the entry again, I kept reading. "Cessa decipere humanas creaturas, eisque aeternae Perditionis venenum , Satana, inventor et magister omnis fallaciae, hostis humanae salutis. Humiliare sub potenti manu dei, contremisce et effuge, invocato a nobis sancto et terribili nomine, quem inferi tremunt." We were falling, falling, we were going to die! I pushed on.

"Ab insidiis diaboli, libera nos, Domine. Ut Ecclesiam tuam secura tibi facias libertate servire te rogamus, audi nos. Ut inimicos sanctae Ecclesiae humiliare digneris, te rogamus, audi nos._" _The engines of the plane were screaming, pitched high as the plane dove further. The lights went out, I couldn't see a thing but I didn't need it any more, I knew the rest of the exorcism by heart, it had been my salvation.

"Terribilis Deus de sanctuario suo." _God is frightening about his own sacred place. _"Deus Israhel ipse truderit virtutem et fortitudinem plebi Suae." _The God of Israel Himself will have thrust excellence and strength to His Own people. _"Benedictus deus. Gloria patri!" _Blessed be God. Glory be to the Father! _I said it with a fierceness that belied my stature. Invoking God, and all his power, to exorcise and remove this abomination from our presence, sending it back to Hell. _  
_  
A bright electrical charge ran through the length of the plane, and the plane, in free-fall, suddenly levelled out, stabilising. People all around me struggled to get into their seats, bags and trays, belongings of all sorts littered the aisle where I was laying. Sam found me, and helped me to my feet. I looked for Dean spotting him still in the galley, sitting on the floor, looking ghostly white. I smiled at Sam, kissing him on the cheek and handing him the journal. I then staggered over to Dean and sat with him, my head falling against his shoulder. He patted me on the knee, kissing the top of my head.

"I knew you could do it." He said proudly. "You ok?"

"Yeah..." I said. "You?"

"Soon as we get off this blasted plane." He said, putting his arm around me and pulling me close.

* * *

**Airport Terminal**

Paramedics were helping people through the walkway to the gate, the FAA was with the copilot who was sitting in a wheelchair, a blanket wrapped around him. I listened as he recounted his story.

"I don't know. I was walking through the airport, then it all goes blank. I don't even remember getting on the plane." He explained, looking pained and confused. My eyes found Amanda's as she was being questioned by an FBI agent. She shook her head and it looked as if they were finishing up the interview.

She looked across at me as Dean and Sam came up, Dean putting his arm casually around my shoulders.

"Thank you." She mouthed towards us. I returned it with a smile, the boys nodded.

"Let's get out of here." Dean said, pulling me toward the exit. Sam followed a sullen, angry look on his face.

"You ok?" I asked as we walked. Sam stopped and turned to us.

"Guys. It knew about Jessica." He said, taking a breath, looking around him then staring at Dean.

"Sam, these things, they read minds. They lie." I said, looking at him.

"Yeah, that's all it was." Dean agreed, nodding.

Sam looked unconvinced, his eyes were hurting. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Dean said, patting him on the shoulder. "Come on."

I grinned and grabbed Dean's wallet out of his back pocket, making toward the ticket's counter.

"So I'll just go get our tickets back to..." Dean grabbed me firmly and pulled me up face him, shaking his head, a twinkle in his eye.

"If you think you're getting me back on another plane sweetheart. You got another thing coming..." He said, his mouth twitching up at the side. I gave him an appraising look and then chuckled.

"Don't think you're going to be able to get an Impala at the rental counter." I said with a challenging look.

"God... I'd be happy to ride back on a... a... donkey right now!" He said and all three of us broke into laughter. I still had the wallet, and I waved it at them, heading toward the car rentals. Driving it was.

* * *

**Plane Hangar**

We were sitting in the hangar, Dean happily reunited with his 'baby' which he'd refused to leave for the last few hours since we'd made it back to town. Jerry was standing in front of us, hands on hips, looking pleased.

"Nobody knows what you guys did, but I do. A lot of people could have been killed." He said, shaking each of our hands.

"Your Dad's gonna be real proud." He said. I smiled sadly, it was a reminder that we still had to find him first.

"We'll see you around Jerry." I said, kissing him on the cheek. We all pulled away, Jerry started walking back toward his office. Dean paused, looking over the car at him.

"You know, Jerry. I meant to ask you, how did you get my cellphone number anyway? I've only had it for like six months." Dean asked.

"Your Dad gave it to me." He answered, and all of our faces registered surprise.

"What?" Sam said.

"When did you talk to him?" Dean and I asked urgently in unison, turning to exchange looks.

"I mean, I didn't exactly talk to him, but I called his number. His voice message said to give you a call." He looked at each of us, then started to walk away. "Thanks again guys."

We had driven down the road a little in silence before Dean pulled over to the side of the road. We all exited the car, standing at the trunk, unspoken tension in the air. A plane with a red maple leaf on its tailed soared overhead from the airport and I watched it silently.

"This doesn't make any sense, man. I've called Dad's number like fifty times. It's been out of service." Sam said. I nodded. We had all called John, and all gotten the same end.

Dean was dialling the number on his phone, he turned on the speaker phone and John's familiar voice came over the speaker. "_This is John Winchester. I can't be reached. If this is an emergency, call my son, Dean. 785-555-0179. He can help_."

Sam was shaking, unshed tears in his eyes. I put my arm around his shoulders, trying to comfort him. He stomped his foot on the ground, battling with his emotions, hands plunged deep into his pockets. Dean was staring at the ground, saying nothing. Sam shook his head and pushed away from me, from the car, walking around to get in the passenger seat. Dean and I looked at each other sadly, a sigh escaping both of us as we turned and joined him.

Things just seemed to be getting more and more complicated.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

* * *

_**Plot bunnies for Dean and Beth's reunion in**_**Lazarus Rising**_**after he gets pulled back from Hell have been driving me nuts (I'm an incurable romantic who loves the drama of star-crossed lovers torn apart – just so long as it's not toooo long apart). I may have to do a rough draft of that just to get it out of my head...**_

* * *

_**Got caught on this one today – I forgot how hard it is to tear myself away from the computer when I'm in a writing mood... my house has been totally trashed by my kid who got to watch too much TV today so I could get this out of my head LOL**_

* * *

_**Not sure which episode will be done next, likely not Bloody Mary, I just can't find a way to work Beth into the final scene with the mirrors without it seeming anti-climatic – suggestions are welcome. 'Skin' might be next otherwise, need to go put on the DVDs and have a timeout with Dean & Sam :D. I'm kind of dying to get to the later episodes anyway... more drama for my couple.**_

* * *

_**Thanks for the reviews! It's so nice to get some positive feedback :) Hope you like this one.**_


	6. Skin - updated 25aug13

**Updated: 25 August 2013**

* * *

**SKIN**

* * *

**Gas Station****_  
Somewhere near Tucumcari_**

Dean eased the Impala into the pump and cut the engine, leaning on the steering wheel.

"All right, I figure we'll hit Tucumcari by lunch, then head south, hit Bisbee by midnight." He said, squinting into the sun. When neither of Sam nor I responded right away he cast a look at us both. His eyes narrowed at Sam, who was busying on his Palm Pilot.

"Sam wears women's underpants." He said softly.

"I've been listening, I'm just busy." Sam responded and I chuckled, sitting forward.

"Busy doing what?" I asked, looking over his shoulder. He tapped the screen again and closed the window that had been open.

"Reading emails." Sam replied. Dean got out of the car, taking the nozzle from the pump and starting to fill up the car.

"Emails from who?" He called out through the open window.

"From my friends at Stanford!" Sam called back at him.

"Really? You still keep in touch with your college friends?" I asked in earnest.

"Why not?" Sam asked. Looking over at me. I shrugged, I couldn't think of a reason not to, it just seemed strange, holding on to this past that he wasn't likely to go back to.

Dean stuck his head in the window. "What exactly do you tell 'em? You know, about where you've been, what you've been doin'?" He asked, standing back to lean against the car.

"I tell them I'm on a road trip with my big brother. I tell them I needed some time off after Jess." Sam answered honestly.

"Oh, so you lie to them." Dean challenged.

"No!" Sam denied. "I just don't tell them … everything."

"Yeah.. that's called lying." Dean said, raising his eyebrow. "I mean, hey, man, I get it. Telling the truth is far worse."

"So what am I supposed to do? Just cut everybody out of my life?" Sam asked. Dean shrugged with a slight nod. Sam looked at him, shaking his head.

"You're serious?" Sam asked.

"Look, it sucks, but in a job like this, you can't get close to people. Period." Dean said.

"Well yeah, but it's different for you." Sam said, looking out at his brother.

"How so?" Dean asked.

"For one, you have _Beth..." _He said, glancing back at me. I shrugged, I wasn't touching this conversation with a ten-foot pole, but I did lean forward a little more to hear what Dean's response was going to be to that.

"Oh yeah." Dean said, shrugging again. "That's different. She's one of us." He nodded, completely convinced of his argument. "Besides, you got her too. In a strictly... platonic, friendly...sister way." He frowned, not sure that he was making the best argument.

"You're kind of..." Sam shook his head and looked at me. "He's kind of anti-social, you know that right?" He asked me.

"Yep." I said with a twitch of my mouth. "You think we suddenly got a social life when you hopped off to college?" I asked, leaning forward to give him a sisterly peck on the cheek.

"No... but..." Sam shook his head and left it at that. I got out of the car and slid up to Dean, my hand snaking around behind him, reaching under his jacket and giving his buttock a squeeze.

"Well, hello..." Dean said with a smile. I chuckled and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, waving it around.

"Hello!" I said with a grin, pushing away from the car. He looked at me, the grin falling from his face, replaced with a stern look.

"You want anything... in there?" I asked, hooking my thumb behind me at the gas station. "I'm buying!" I winked. His look turned into one of amusement, and he shook his head at me in an affectionate way.

"See if they have any pie!" He said. I laughed and wandered inside.

I came out carrying two pieces of apple pie, topped with whipped cream and a nice, hot coffee in all it's milky, sugary goodness. Sam and Dean were still at the car, now having a heated discussion.

"It is our problem. They're my friends!" Sam was saying.

"St Louis is four _hundred _miles behind us Sam." Dean said and they got into one of their staring matches.

"What's going on?" I asked. They turned to look at me, and Dean growled under his breath, grabbing both pieces of pie from my hands. He looked from Sam, to me, and then back at Sam, as if they were having a telepathic conversation.

"You're driving!" He said to Sam, not really answering my question. "I'm gonna need this pie!" He said looking at me as he climbed into the back seat sullenly and stabbed his pie with a plastic fork. I raised my eyebrow.

"So... St Louis then?" I said, drawing on the little bit of conversation I'd overheard. Dean swallowed a mouth full of pie with a grunt.

* * *

**St Louis  
**_**Later that day**_

Sam had filled me in on the drive about the email he'd received from his old Stanford friend Rebecca. Her brother had been arrested for murdering his girlfriend, Rebecca was convinced it wasn't him, but the cops had a good case. Dean sulked in the back of the car for a few hours before taking the wheel again. We were in St Louis within eight hours.

* * *

**Rebecca's House**

Sam knocked on the door to Rebecca's house and a pretty blonde opened the door, taking in the three of us standing there.

"Oh my god, Sam!" She said happily, her eyes sparkling at the sight of him.

"Well if it isn't little Becky." Sam said teasingly.

"You know what you can do with the little Becky crap." She laughed giving him an affectionate hug.

"I got your email." Sam explained when they pulled back.

"I didn't think that you would come here." Rebecca said, shaking her head at him. She might not have thought he'd come, but she certainly wasn't unhappy about him being here. I hid a smile and watched as Dean stood forward, extending his hand.

"Dean. Older brother." He said by way of introduction. She shook his hand.

"Hi," She smiled at him and then looked at me expectantly.

"Hi, I'm Beth. Older sister... kinda." I said with a smile, shaking her hand.

"Kinda?" She asked.

"Long story." Dean said, but didn't elaborate. He was still in a mood.

"We're here to help. Whatever we can do." Sam said to change the subject.

"Come in." She invited us, and we all entered into the house.

"Nice place." Dean said, looking around at the interior as we walked through the dining room. It was very _Martha Stewart _not a thing out of place, a huge ten-seater wooden dining table in the centre of the room, chandelier hanging over the table. Expensive art adorned the walls.

"It's my parents'," Rebecca said. "I was just crashing here for the long weekend when everything happened. I decided to take the semester off. I'm gonna stay until Zack's free."

"Where are your folks?" Sam asked, looking around. It seemd like we were the only ones here.

"They live in Paris for half the year, so they're on their way home now for the trial." We entered the kitchen, she stepped up to the refrigerator offering us a beer, which Dean enthusiastically indicated was a great idea, but Sam declined with a stern look.

"So, tell us what happened." Sam said, leaning on the marble bench in front of us.

"Well, um, Zack came home and he found Emily tied to a chair. She was beaten up and bloody, and she wasn't breathing." Tears were forming in her eyes, it was still fresh, too fresh. "So, he called 911, and the police – they showed up, and they arrested him." She looked at us all, shaking her head. "But the thing is... the only way that Zack could have killed Emily is if he was in two places at the same time. The police – they have a video. It's from the security tape across the street. It shows Zack coming home at ten o'clock, and Emily was killed just after that. But _I swear_, he was here, with me, having a few beers until at least after midnight." She finished.

Sam looked at us both. "You know maybe we could see the crime scene. Zack's house." He suggested.

"We could." Dean nodded, albeit hesitantly.

"Why? I mean, what could you do?" Rebecca asked, looking at Dean.

"Well, me, not much. But Dean's a cop." Sam said, she looked sharply at him, as if assessing what Sam had just said. Sam was nodding at Dean, who looked back from Sam to Rebecca and chuckled, awkwardly.

"Detective, actually," he said.

"Really?" Rebecca asked, and he nodded. "Where?"

"Bisbee, Arizona. But I'm off-duty now." He answered without missing a beat. I smiled to myself, always amazed at how easily he could lie.

"You guys, it's so nice to offer, but I just – I don't know." Rebecca said, looking unsure.

"Bec, look, I know Zack didn't do this." Sam said, looking at her. "So now we have to find a way to prove that he's innocent."

"Okay." Rebecca said. "Okay, I'm gonna go get the keys." She said, walking down the hall.

Dean whistled quietly as she walked away, turning to face Sam. "Oh yeah man, you're a real straight shooter with your friends." Dean teased Sam. I smirked. He had a point.

"Look, Zack and Becky need our help." Sam said.

"I just don't think this is our kind of problem." Dean countered with a shake of his shoulders.

"Two places at once?" I interjected, looking at them both. "We've looked in to less." I pointed out, clasping my hands in front of me as I leaned on the bench. Dean looked at me, then down at the ground, defeated.

"Have I mentioned how much I _hate it _when you two gang up on me?" He asked. I grinned.

* * *

**Zack's House**

We pulled up in front of Zack's townhouse, police tape sealed off the front of the house from the street. Rebecca was looking anxious.

"You're sure this is ok?" She asked Dean.

"Yeah." Dean answered. "I am an officer of the law." He said slightly sarcastically, nodding. She missed the sarcasm, anyone would have if they didn't know otherwise. He took off across the road, and we all hurried to catch him.

Inside the house, the furniture and walls were smeared with blood. Rebecca was still standing on the front porch, watching us as we entered under the police tape.

"You want to wait outside?" Sam asked her.

She hesitated, glancing inside. "No, I want to help." She said finally, ducking under the tape and coming inside.

"Tell us, what else did the police say?" I prompted her, stopping in front of a photo on a desk. It was of a dark haired man, goatee, arm extended as he took a photo of himself with a beautiful woman in his arms. _Zack and Emily, _I thought to myself. So much pain and sadness. There was a police evidence number, 4, next to it. I stuffed my hands in my pockets, sighing.

"Well, there's no sign of a break-in." Rebecca said. "They say that Emily let her attacker in. The lawyers – they're already talking about a plea bargain..." Her voice trailed off as she looked around the room, taking it all in, the reality of the situation starting to hit home. "Oh god..." She said tearfully, hand over her mouth.

"Look Bec," Sam said, moving to stand by her. "If Zack didn't do this, it means someone else did. Any idea who?" She shook her head negatively, then looked up at him, as if remembering something she hadn't thought of until now.

"Uh, there was something, about a week before. Somebody broke in here and stole some clothes – Zack's clothes. The police, they don't think it's anything. I mean, we're not that far from down town, sometimes people get robbed." Sam nodded and moved further into the room. Dean was at the door, looking out at a neighbour's dog, it was barking like mad. Rebecca walked up to him and commented.

"You know, that used to be the sweetest dog." She said.

"Oh yeah? What happened?" Dean asked, looking at her.

"He just changed." She shrugged.

"Do you remember when?" Dean asked, frowning and looking back out the door.

Rebecca thought about this. "I guess around the time of the murder." She answered. Dean looked at her, and then moved away toward Sam, nodding at me to follow. Sam was in the kitchen looking at a picture of himself, Zack and Rebecca that was stuck to the fridge, he looked sad, and worried.

"So the neighbour's dog went psycho right around the time Zack's girlfriend was killed." Dean said to us both, keeping his voice low.

"Animals can have a sharp sense of the paranormal." I said.

"Yeah, maybe Fido saw something." Dean agreed.

"So, you think maybe this_ is_ our kind of problem?" Sam asked, looking a little vindicated.

"No, probably not." Dean answered stubbornly. "But we should look at the security tape, you know, just to make sure."

"Yeah..." Sam said, rolling his eyes at Dean's inability to admit he might have been wrong. I suppressed a smile and Dean raised his eyebrow at me which earned him a shrug. Rebecca walked over to join us.

"So, the tape. The security footage – you think maybe your lawyers could get their hands on it?" I asked. "I don't think Dean has that kind of jurisdiction."

"I've already got it. I just didn't want to say something in front of the cop." Rebecca's eyes cut to Dean and he chuckled. "I stole it off the lawyer's desk. I just had to see it for myself." I nodded approvingly, I liked this girl.

* * *

**Rebecca's House**

Sam was standing in front of the TV at Rebecca's house, remote tucked up to his chin, staring at the security footage from the night of the murder. I was sitting with Rebecca on the couch, Dean perched on the arm. We were all staring at the TV intently.

"Here he comes." Rebecca said, and the footage showed Zack entering his house.

"22:04... just after ten," I commented. "You said time of death was about 10:30?" Rebecca nodded at me.

"Our lawyers hired some kind of video expert. He says the tape's authentic. It wasn't tampered with." She said. Sam looked up all of a sudden, and turned to us.

"Hey, Bec, can we take those beers now?" He asked, we all looked at him.

"Oh, sure." Rebecca said, getting up and heading toward the kitchen.

"Maybe some sandwiches too?" Sam asked as she walked away. She turned and threw him a smile.

"What do you think this is? Hooters?" She laughed, disappearing into the kitchen.

"I wish." Dean muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes. I stood up and walked over to Sam, Dean following. He nodded at the TV. "What is it?"

Sam rewound the tape, and then played it again. "Check this out." He said.

He pointed to the top left frame, a close-up of Zack as he looked directly into the camera, and he clicked it through the frames one by one. Zack's eyes appeared to be silver. Sam paused the tape.

"Could it be a camera flare?" I asked, looking a little closer.

"Not like any I've ever seen." Sam replied. "You know a lot of cultures believe that a photograph can catch a glimpse of the soul..."

"Right." Dean said.

"Remember that dog that was freaking out? Maybe he saw this thing. Maybe this is some kind of dark double of Zack's, something that looks like him but isn't him." Sam said, nodding at the screen again.

"Like a doppelganger." I said quickly.

"Yeah. It'd sure explain how he was two places at once." I nodded. He was right.

* * *

**Zack's House  
5.30am**

I pulled the car into the curb out the back of Zack's house. Dean was next to me, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, clutching at a large cup of coffee. We all exited the car, Dean slamming the door a little harder than necessary. I shook my head at him and he grimaced. _So not a morning person. _

"All right, so what are we doin' here at 5:30 in the morning?" He asked grumpily, leaning against the front of the Impala.

Sam looked at us, he hadn't slept much, and yet he was rearing to go, I yawned my own tiredness away and leaned on the hood next to Dean.

"I realised something. The videotape shows the killer going in, but not coming out." Sam said, looking around.

"So he went out the back door?" I ventured, taking a sip of my own coffee.

"Right." Sam said, crossing the road to the alleyway beside the house. "So there should be a trail to follow. A trail the police would never pursue."

"Because they think the killer never left. And they caught your friend Zack inside." Dean said, taking another sip of coffee. "I still don't know what we're doing here at 5:30 in the morning." Dean grumbled to me, out of hearing of Sam. I smiled sympathetically at him, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

"I think we need a holiday." I whispered at him, it earned me a smile. I patted him on the knee, and walked off to join Sam. He was busy inspecting the dumpster and I threw my empty cup of coffee in there. Sam walked toward the alley way and then stopped suddenly, moving closer to a nearby telephone pole, there was blood smeared on it.

"Blood." I said, taking a step closer. Sam nodded.

"Someone came this way." He said, looking at Dean to make his point. Dean was looking around, but he hadn't moved off the front of the Impala.

"Yeah, but the trail ends. I don't see anything over here." Dean said, gesturing to nothing in particular with his coffee.

An ambulance came zooming past, lights and sirens blaring and we all exchanged a look of curiosity, hurrying to get back in the car and follow.

The ambulance stopped several blocks down and I pulled the car in behind a crowd of people who had gathered nearby. We got out in time to see an Asian man being escorted, handcuffed, by the police to the back of a waiting police car.

"What happened?" I asked a woman standing nearby, she was dressed in running clothes, and was breathing hard like her jog had just been interrupted.

"He tried to kill his wife. Tied her up and beat her." She answered, staring at the scene in front of us.

"Really?" Sam asked, that familiar worried look on his face.

"Yeah." We all stared a little longer, silent. "I used to see him going to work in the morning. He'd wave, say hello. He seemed like such a nice guy." She said, shaking her head in confusion. Dean swallowed hard and exchanged a knowing look with Sam. We watched as the man was put into the back of the car and driven away.

We decided to take a look around the house where the latest attack had taken place. Sam and I were out the back, checking for a fresh trail. He was looking inside a couple of bins out the back, but shook his head when he found nothing. I shrugged, looking around in the bushes, but there was nothing to see. We moved together to the front of the house, Dean was walking quickly up next to us.

"Hey! Remember when I said this wasn't our kind of problem?" He asked. We nodded at him.

"_Definitely_ our kind of problem." Dean said pointing at nothing in particular.

"What did you find out?" Sam asked, moving closer.

"Well, I just talked to the patrol man who was first on the scene, heard this guy, Alex's story. Apparently the dude was driving home from a business trip when his wife was attacked," Dean said.

"So, he was two places at once." I said, frowning and looking back at the house.

"Exactly." Dean nodded. "Then he sees himself in the house, police think he's a nutjob." Dean was waving his arms in the air, clearly excited at what he'd discovered.

"Two dark doubles attacking loved ones in exactly the same way." Sam mused.

"Could be the same thing doing it too." I said, crossing my arms.

"Shapeshifter?" Sam asked, looking at me. Dean shrugged. "Something that can make itself look like anyone?"

"Every culture in the world has a shapeshifter lore. You know, legends of creatures who can transform themselves into animals or other men," Dean said.

"Right, skinwalkers, werewolves..." I said, thinking.

"We've got two attacks within blocks of each other. I'm guessing we've got a shapeshifter prowling the neighbourhood." Dean said.

"Let me ask you this – in all this shapeshifter lore, can any of them fly?" Sam asked, looking up at nothing in particular.

I shrugged. "You mean other than Dracula?" I grinned and Sam rolled his eyes at me. "Not that I know of." I answered.

Sam moved to point down the alley way. "I picked up a trail here. Someone ran out the back of this building and headed off this way." Sam pointed across the road.

"Just like your friend's house." Dean said.

"Yeah. And just like at Zack's house, the trail suddenly ends. I mean, whatever it is just disappeared." Sam said, his shoulders slumping. "I mean, whatever it is just disappeared."

Dean paused, his lips drawn in a thin line as he thought through the new information.

"Well, there's another way to go." He said to us. "Down." We looked at our feet where the trail left off, there was a manhole leading into the sewers, steam rising out of the grate in the morning air.

* * *

**Sewers**

I allowed my eyes to adjust to the darkness as Sam followed me down the ladder. Dean had gone first and was already moving around. There were a few lights that lit up the tunnels, making it pretty easy to see, which made it easier on us as we hadn't brought any light source with us.

I dropped the last couple of rungs down to the ground and landed with a splash. Grimacing and chastising myself for getting a perfectly good pair of jeans dirty, I sighed and looked around.

"I bet this runs right by Zack's house too. The shapeshifter could be using the sewer system to get around." I said, pointing in the direction of where Zack's house lay.

"I think you're right." Dean answered, leaning down. "Look at this." Sam and I joined him. He was crouched over a pile of blood and what looked like skin on the ground. Dean used his pocketknife to lift up some of the gunk off the ground, it hung in long mucus-like strands off it. I gagged.

"That is _gross." _I said, standing up. The boys nodded agreement. Dean was looking a little closer at the mucus.

"Is this from his victims?" Sam asked.

"I just had a sick thought. When the shapeshifter changes shape – maybe it sheds..." Dean said, voicing his thoughts.

"That is sick." I shuddered. Dean let the mucus fall back to the ground and stood up.

"Well, one thing I learned from Dad, is that no matter what kind of shapeshifter it is, there's one sure way to kill it." He said. I raised my eyebrow at him.

"Silver bullet to the heart." Sam answered for him.

"That's right!" Dean said leading us back toward the manhole. We climbed out and replaced the cover, heading back to the car.

* * *

**Outside the 2****nd**** victims house **

Sam's phone rang as we walked and he answered it. "This is Sam." He paused while he listened to the other end.

"We're near Zack's, we're just checking some things out." Sam said into the phone, shrugging at us. '_Bec' _he mouthed at us. He had a brief conversation, that didn't sound like it was going very well, Sam was trying to get her to see reason, she'd obviously found out Dean's cop story was bogus and was telling him not to contact her again.

Dean was going through the trunk of the car, loading a couple of guns with silver bullets. Sam hung up with disappointed sigh and Dean slammed the trunk shut.

"I hate to say it, but that's exactly what I'm talkin' about." Dean said. "You lie to your friends because if they knew the real you, they'd be freaked. It's just – it'd be easier if-"

"If I was like you." Sam finished for him, looking grim.

"Hey, man, like it or not, we are not like other people." Dean said. "But I tell you one thing, this whole gig..." Dean took a gun out of his jacket and handed it to Sam. "It ain't without perks." He winked. Sam took the gun and tucked it in the back of his jeans. I checked the safety of my own and followed suit, grabbing a flashlight off the top of the car.

* * *

**Sewers**

I took a moment to once again lament the soiling of my favourite jeans as we landed back in the sewers. But it wasn't anything we hadn't all been through before so I didn't dwell on it too long. We'd been looking around the tunnels for about ten minutes when Dean stopped, pointing down the way we were headed.

"I think we're close to its lair." He said.

"What makes you say that?" I asked, looking over at him.

"Because there's another puke-inducing pile of … whatever it is... next to your face." He grinned and I turned to find the mucus-like gunk stuck to a nearby pipe. I jerked back in disgust.

"Ewww!" I said with a shudder. "So gross!" Dean chuckled and pointed his flashlight toward a pile of clothes in a corner.

"Looks like it's lived here for a while." I said, walking up to the mess.

"Who knows how many murders he's gotten away with?" Sam turned away to face Dean and suddenly yelled.

"Dean!" I looked up in time to see the Asian man from earlier standing behind us, caught in the light Sam was shining at him, Dean spun at Sam's yell but got punched in the shoulder, falling to the ground. The shapeshifter turned and ran back the way we'd come. I rushed to Dean's side, Sam was shooting at the shapeshifter.

"Go! Go!" I cried to Sam as I grabbed Dean by the arm, helping him to his feet, he grunted, holding his shoulder. Sam sprinted off after him, Dean and I not far behind.

We followed the shapeshifter up the ladder to a manhole, and saw him disappear out the hole. Sam was first out, then Dean, struggling with his shoulder, he'd been hit hard. I followed Dean up, the boys were looking around, but the shapeshifter was long gone.

"Let's split up." Sam said, nodding at the pair of us.

"All right." Dean agreed. "You go with Sam and check the street, it's a bigger area." Dean said to me. "I'll take the alley and meet around the other side."

Sam and I hid our guns under our jackets as we hurried along the street, searching for any sign of the shapeshifter. Sam crossed to one side of the street, I took the other. There were people everywhere, this _thing _could be any one of them. I wondered idly how quickly it could change form, looking over at Sam expecting to see it behind him at any moment. Nothing. Sam met my eyes and shook his head, then kept moving.

I wandered off down the side street near me, seeing Dean approach Sam from the other side. My phone rang and I answered it.

"_Hey it's Sam. Where are you?" _Sam asked.

"Not far, I just ducked around a corner to check out this alley way." I said quietly, shining my flashlight down the dark narrow area.

"_OK. Well Dean and I are going back to the car, meet you there_." Sam said, I agreed and clicked my phone shut, sticking it in my pocket. I took out my gun heading into the alley, stepping carefully because it was dark. There was nothing other than a few empty bottles of liquor, some old food containers, I disturbed a couple of rats having their evening meal, but that was about it. I sighed, tucking my gun into the back of my pants and decided to rejoin the boys.

I half-jogged back to the car, not seeing them anywhere. This was puzzling to me. Suddenly Dean stood up from behind the car, holding a crowbar. I raised my eyebrow, but he smiled at me and tossed it in the trunk of the car, slamming it closed. I shrugged.

"Where's Sam?" I asked breathlessly as he came to meet me.

"In the car." Dean said, I glanced past him with a frown. I didn't see Sam anywhere.

"Really?" I said with a half-smile. Dean grabbed me and kissed me suddenly, taking my breath out of my mouth it was so unexpected. I smiled and leaned in to the kiss, breathless at the intensity of it, wrapping my arms around him. Dean pulled back a little, smiling.

"Have I told you lately how beautiful you are?" He asked, looking me in the eyes.

"Uh... no. What's up with you?" I said, feeling a little uncomfortable. Not that I didn't mind the verbal attention, but it was so not... him. Dean showed his feelings with his lips, and body, words... not so much. I gazed into his eyes, and felt a stabbing shock in my stomach at what I saw there. He must have seen it in my eyes, the realisation that I knew it wasn't Dean, because I'd barely moved for my gun before he grabbed me by my hair, jerking my head around.

"Enough of the foreplay." He said with a snarl, and then everything went black as he hit me in the back of the head.

* * *

I came to, tied to a post somewhere I didn't recognise. I could see Sam tied to another opposite me, his neck had a rope around it too, I noticed that mine did not.

"Sam!" I whispered urgently. "Sam, wake up!" His head jerked up with a start, and he tried to move but couldn't.

Dean, no, the shapeshifter wearing Dean's _image, _walked in at that moment carrying rope, he looked at me, then silently went over and backhanded Sam. Sam groaned, looking up at the shapeshifter.

"Where is he? Where is Dean?" I asked, struggling against the ropes at my wrists. The shapeshifter put the ropes down in an alcove near Sam, returning to look at me.

"I wouldn't worry about him. I'd worry about you." He said to me with Dean's voice.

"Where is he?" Sam said from in front of the shapeshifter.

"You don't really want to know." He chuckled, walking past Sam carrying a bag. He started rummaging through the bag, glancing over at us as he worked. "I swear, the more I learn about you and your family..." He paused to look back at me and shake his head. "I thought I came from a bad background."

"What do you mean, learn?" I asked, frowning. The shapeshifter was examining some of the weapons from the Impala, putting them into the bag. Suddenly he grabbed his head, grimacing, obviously in pain. Sam and I exchanged confused looks while the creature battled with what looked like a massive migraine. Then he relaxed, and looked back at Sam with a groan. He walked over toward Sam, an amused look on his face.

"He's sure got issues with you. You got to go to college. He had to stay home. I mean, _I _had to stay home. With Dad." He turned to point at me. "And _her. _You don't think I had dreams of my own? But Dad needed me. Where the Hell were you?" He walked over to me, and crouched down, running a finger along my cheek. "Not that it was all bad..." He grinned, and kissed me hard on the lips. I pulled away, and spat at him. His smile dropped and I felt the searing pain of his fist back hand me across the cheek. I turned to look at his defiantly.

"Where is my brother?" Sam asked, distracting him. The shapeshifter turned to lean in close to Sam.

"I am your brother. See, deep down, I'm just jealous. You got friends. You could have a life. Me? I know I'm a freak. And sooner or later," He glanced over at me again, giving me a pointed look. "Everybody's gonna leave me." He backed away.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"You left. Hell, I did everything Dad asked me to, and he ditched me too. No explanation, nothing, just poof. Left me with you pair of sorry asses. But, still, this life? It's not without its perks." He laughed. "I meet the nicest people. Like little Becky." He looked down at me. "You know, Dean would bang her if he had the chance." I glared at him_._

"Let's see what happens when I pay her a visit." He said with a smile. He reached down to grab me by the chin, forcing me to look into his eyes. "And when I'm done with her, I'm gonna come back and have_ a lot_ of fun with you... I know all the things you like baby...and the things you don't." I stared at him, he ran a hand along my leg, over the top my jeans, slipping it down to press against my groin, letting me know he was in control and there was nothing I could do about it right then. I glared at him again, careful to hide the growing horror behind my eyes. "Don't go anywhere, baby." He stood up and walked out, laughing as he left.

"Sam, we gotta get out of here." I said, renewing the fight against my ropes.

"Yeah, yeah." Sam agreed. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I grunted, I felt the ropes starting to slacken. Sam was getting nowhere with his. I strained against them harder and managed to pull them enough that I slipped my wrist out of one.

"Ha! Bet he didn't tie me up as tight because _I'm a girl!" _I said triumphantly, wriggling free of my ropes.

Sam chuckled. "I think he might have had other things on his mind, Beth." He said, his eyes full of concern for me. I grimaced and hurried to help him with his ropes.

"Don't remind me." I said sombrely, pulling at the knot which was very, very tight. I gave up and started looking for a knife. A cough from behind Sam startled me and I spun around into a crouch by the only table in the room. My eyes caught sight of Dean's pocketknife on the floor and I grabbed it, flipping it open and looking for the source of the cough.

"That better be you Beth, and not that freak of nature!" Dean's voice echoed in the room. I let out a sigh of relief and stood up. Sam laughed.

"Yeah, it's me." I answered. I moved further along the room, and saw Dean appear from under a canvas cloth that the shapeshifter had put over him. He was tied to another pole, struggling with his ropes. I crouched down, and started sawing at his ropes with the pocketknife.

"Are you ok?" I asked, concerned. He looked at me and grunted.

"Yeah," he answered. I had managed to free him from the ropes at his wrists and he ruffled my hair affectionately, then noticed the red welt on my cheek and his eyes darkened with anger.

"He do that to you?" He asked, touching the spot gently. I winced and nodded, moving to cut the ropes binding his neck. "I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch!" He declared. I smiled, and helped him to his feet. He put his hands either side of my face and inspected me, eyes looking for any other marks.

"Are you ok?" He asked. I nodded. "You sure?"

"Yeah... yeah I'm fine." I said quietly. He looked at me a little longer until Sam cleared his throat, breaking the moment.

"Uh... guys? Little help here?" He said. I jumped, having totally forgotten about him. Quickly I moved to free him of his binds, Dean helping him up to his feet.

"We have to hurry. He went to Rebecca's, looking like you." I said to Dean.

Dean grinned. "Well, he's not stupid. He picked the handsome one." He chuckled, punching Sam playfully in the arm. Sam just frowned.

We looked around. We were in some kind of boiler room, or industrial warehouse. There didn't seem to be any fluorescent lighting, candles burned in the corners of the room, giving us a bit of light to see by, but not much.

"That's the thing." Sam was saying, looking at one of the walls. "He didn't just look like you, he _was you. _Or he was becoming you." He said, glancing back at his brother.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked, his hand on my lower back, steering me ahead of him and down a short hall. He hadn't stopped touching me since he'd seen the welt on my face.

"It was like he was downloading your thoughts and memories." I said, thinking back to the way he'd grabbed his head. Light caught my eye and I moved ahead of Dean, leading him. Sam followed us.

"You mean like a Vulcan mind meld?" Dean asked, curious.

"Yeah, something like that." I said thoughtfully, meeting his eyes.

"Maybe that's why he doesn't just kill us." Sam said, rushing past me to a window that was boarded up. He started pulling at the boards, breaking one free.

"Maybe he needs to keep us alive. Psychic connection?" Dean asked, getting in on the action. They made short work of the boards and pushed the window open. Sam stuck his head out, and then pulled himself through. He reached back a hand once he was on the other side and I grabbed it, letting him pull me up. Dean pushed me from behind and I scrambled through the window and found myself in a dark alley.

Sam helped Dean up, the latter groaning at the strain on his injured shoulder, and I put my arm under his to steady him as he stood up.

"Come on. We gotta find a phone, call the police, he's probably at Rebecca's already." Sam said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Dean said, pulling away from me. "You're gonna put an APB out on me?" He asked. Sam shrugged.

"Sorry." He said sheepishly. Dean sighed.

* * *

We were standing in front of a store window, a news report was being shown on the display TVs there. Dean had his arm around me, and we watched as a sketch of Dean appeared on the screen.

"Aw man. That's not even a good picture!" Dean said, gesturing at the screen.

"It's good enough." Sam said, looking around cautiously at the people walking past and starting to walk away from the store. Dean followed after Sam, pulling me with him. Sam led us into an alley nearby, Dean stepped in a puddle and groaned, somehow I managed to miss it for once.

"Come on." Sam said. "They said attempted murder. At least we know..."

"I didn't kill her." Dean said.

"We'll check with Rebecca in the morning, see if she's all right." Sam finished.

"All right, but first I want to find that handsome devil and kick the holy crap out of him." He stopped walking, looking around us.

"Dean, we have no weapons. No silver bullets." I pointed out.

"Hey, the guy's walkin' round with my face, okay, it's a little personal, I want to find him!" Dean said, frustrated.

I paused, and nodded. "Ok, where do we look?" I asked.

"We could start with the sewers." Dean said.

"We have no weapons." Sam reiterated. "He stole our guns, we need more." We paused and I had a thought.

"The car?" I said it for us all.

"I'm betting he drove it to Rebecca's." Dean said, nodding.

"The news said he fled on foot. I bet it's still parked there." Sam said.

Dean had his fist in the air and seemed to be struggling with this thought. He grimaced, upset. "The thought of him drivin' my car!" He growled.

"All right, come on." Sam said, starting to walk again.

"It's killin' me!" Dean exclaimed. I hit him in the arm.

"Let it go." I laughed, he feigned a hurt look my way.

* * *

**Rebecca's House**

It was a short walk to reach Rebecca's house, Dean was still complaining about the shapeshifter having tainted his baby. We rounded the corner and saw the Impala sitting at the curbside.

"Oh, there she is!" Dean said, relieved, raising a hand in its direction. "Finally, something went right tonight." We started toward the car, but a police vehicle appeared, pulling in right behind the Impala. "Oh crap." Dean said.

We turned to head back, only to find another police car parked just yards away. Dean moved us toward a fence. "This way, this way."

I scrambled over the fence with a boost from Dean. Sam was hesitating, looking at us as Dean prepared to follow.

"You go, I'll hold them off." Sam said.

"What are you talking about?" Dean whispered. "They'll catch you!"

"Look, they can't hold me. Just go, keep out of sight. Meet me at Rebecca's." He said. Dean started to climb over the fence to join me.

"Dean!" Sam called out. Dean stopped and turned around.

"Stay out of the sewers!" He said, looking at us. "I mean it!"

Dean waved him off. "Yeah, yeah."

A voice sounded from behind Sam. "Police! Don't move! Keep your hands where I can see 'em!" Sam raised his hands in the air, and Dean dove over the fence. Sam turned to face the police officer as Dean and I melted into the shadows to hide.

We waited a few hours, dawn coming to light up the sky. When the police had cleared out, we headed back to the Impala, which was now alone on the street. Dean was busy getting weapons out of the trunk. I was loading another gun with silver bullets.

"Sorry Sam..." Dean said, grinning at me. "Can't keep all my promises." I returned the smile, it was just me and him again, like old times.

It didn't take us long to get to the sewers and we were hurrying down tunnels toward where we'd been before. We came into a chamber that was lit up with candles. Disgusting chunks of skin and blood were on the floor everywhere. I gagged, fighting to keep down the urge to vomit. _Gross! _A noise came from near a pipe, and we quickly moved to investigate. There was a large figure covered with another green canvas sheet and Dean pulled it back. I couldn't believe who I was looking at. The blond was bloodied, and beaten, bound at the hands, her arms pinned with rope around her mid section.

"Rebecca?" I exclaimed, she flinched, her first sight of Dean.

"It's ok, it's ok." I said, going to her. She looked at me, fear in her eyes. "It's us, you're safe." I reassured her. Dean was quickly sawing at the ropes to get her free.

"What happened?" Dean asked.

"I was walking home, and everything just went white. Someone hit me over the head, and I wound up here, just in time to see that _thing _turn into me." She said. "I don't know, how is that even possible?_" _She asked, looking at us both crying.

"Okay, it's okay. We're gonna get you out of here." I said as Dean finished cutting through the ropes. "Come on. Can you walk?" I asked. She nodded and I helped her to her feet.

"We've gotta hurry." Dean said. "Sam went to see you." He looked at me, worry in his eyes.

The time it took to get to Rebecca's was painstaking. I kept going through all the possibilities in my mind until I had to force my brain to be silent, to stop and be calm. Dean was seething as we ran through the alley toward her house.

We rushed up on the front porch, there was a fight going on in the house. I looked through the window and saw _Dean_ fighting with Sam. They fell into a coffee table, and the shapeshifter hit Sam a couple of times before pinning Sam under him. I gestured wildly to the real Dean who was at the front door, and picking the lock to get inside. He opened the door and I joined him, nodding. We moved in formation, quickly, to the room they'd been fighting in.

The shapeshifter was choking Sam, who was struggling under him when we entered the room, guns at the ready.

"Hey!" Dean shouted, getting it's attention. It broke away from Sam, who lay there gasping for air. The two _Deans _faced off at each other, the shapeshifter had sunk into a fighting stance, but he was no match for the real Dean, who had a gun. He snarled and lunged at us. Dean and I fired at the same time, both bullets hitting their mark, forcing the shapeshifter to fall back into a wall, before collapsing.

We lowered our guns, Rebecca running into the room behind Dean. I rushed to Sam's side, he was breathing heavily and grunting, blood oozing from his forehead and nose. I helped him sit up, and he leaned against me, trying to catch his breath.

Dean was looking like he'd just seen a ghost, or shot one even. He walked purposefully over to the body, looking up at Sam and me as he noticed his pendant around the others' neck. He yanked the pendant from the shapeshifter's neck, pausing a moment to look at it before slipping it into his pocket with a quiet nod.

* * *

**Rebecca's House  
**_**Later that day.**_

Dean and I were looking at a map on the hood of the Impala, mapping out our next few hours of driving. I looked up and saw Sam come out of the house with Rebecca. They were talking quietly, but he looked happy, content. They paused and said a few more words before exchanging hugs. They both laughed and then Sam pulled away, starting down the steps.

"Will you call me sometime?" Rebecca called out, her voice carrying to us.

Sam paused on the steps, looking back up at her. He nodded. "It might not be for a little while." He answered. But he didn't say no. She looked at him and nodded, seemingly content with that answer. Looking up she waved to Dean and I, we returned the wave with a smile, and she went back inside.

"So what about your friend Zack?" Dean asked, moving to open the driver's door when Sam joined us.

"Cops are blaming this Dean Winchester guy for Emily's murder. They found the weapon in the guy's lair, Zack's clothes stained with her blood. Now they're thinking maybe the surveillance tape was tampered with." He smirked. "Yeah, Becca says Zack will be released soon." He smiled and Dean rolled his eyes, getting into the car. I grabbed the map and slid into the back seat behind Dean.

We were headed out of town, all lost in our own thoughts when Dean spoke up.

"Sorry, man." He said, looking over at Sam.

"About what?" Sam asked.

"I really wish things could be different, you know? I wish you could just be... Joe College." It was the best Sam was going to get out of Dean, but at least he was trying.

"No, that's okay," Sam said, looking out the window. "You know, the truth is, even at Stanford, deep down I never really fit in."

"Well that's 'cause you're a freak." Dean smirked.

"Yeah, thanks." Sam said, looking over at him.

"Well I'm a freak too. I'm right there with ya, all the way." Dean said. Sam laughed and I shook my head.

"Yeah, I know you are." He said softly.

There was a pause as Dean thought about something.

"You know, I gotta say – I'm sorry I'm gonna miss it." He said, suddenly.

"Miss what?" I asked from behind him. He looked at me through the rearview mirror, a twinkle in his eye.

"How many chances am I gonna have to see my own funeral?" He asked, smiling at me. I chuckled and shook my head. I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

* * *

**_A/N It's 1.30am and I've read this through about four times, I think I caught most of the typos and other issues. Sorry if I missed a few, my eyes are starting to do cartwheels, it's time for bed!_**

**_This was fun to write. I tossed around the idea of having the shapeshifter actually seduce Beth, but decided against it as it would have slowed the story down, and the only time I could see it occurring would be just after he's hit Sam unconscious... and how would he get her into the car without her seeing Sam? So yeah, don't think it'd really work._**

* * *

**_There's a side story coming up of Dean and Beth's 'first time', I just have to finish writing it. I'm clearly sex deprived at the moment... I promise not to turn this into a full on porno though, most of the time, it's not really who they are anyway – you gotta remember, their relationship has grown over time, in the presence of others, being a slave to their libidos isn't something they were ever allowed to indulge..._**

* * *

**_To all my reviewers – thank you so much for the feedback, I'm so glad you're enjoying it. I hope you continue to enjoy like it as much I love writing it! Feel free to leave me more notes, constructive criticism is always welcome, especially if I make a glaring error somewhere along the way._**

* * *

**_There'll be another update soon no doubt – I'm having too much fun to not keep up the pace, much to the neglect of my house and every other part of my life! Ha!_**

* * *

**_Oh, and I did finish the reunion (first part) of_ Lazarus Rising_ so that's out of my head, thank God! It is Season 4, mind you, so it's a little ways off being posted. I will be doing each season as a separate story. So there is the opportunity for me to post it before I get through the rest, if people want to read it separately (it's not like any of us don't know the canon storyline). If that's something you might like to see, let me know, I'm happy to oblige :) _**

**_Until next time – enjoy!_**


	7. Hook Man

_**A/N – 2am this time. YAWN. But I'm having too much fun. It will catch up with me, but I'll keep updating as often and quickly as I can since people seem to be enjoying it. A little off beat this time, not quite following the TV portrayal because Beth spends some time away from the boys, hope it reads ok. **_

* * *

**HOOK MAN**

* * *

**Somewhere near Ankeny, Iowa.**

I sipped quietly on my coffee, Sam was on the payphone nearby, making enquiries about John – again, and Dean was hunched over the laptop tapping away at the keyboard. I closed my eyes and let the sun warm me up, as far as days went, this one was pretty good.

Sam hung up the phone and stalked back to the table, looking frustrated.

"Your, uh, half-caf, double vanilla latte is getting cold over here, Francis." Dean teased.

"Bite me." Sam said, sitting down with a sigh.

"So, anything?" I said over my coffee, meeting his eyes. He shook his head.

"I had 'em check the FBI's Missing Persons Data Bank. No John Doe's fitting Dad's description. I even ran his plates for traffic violations." Sam tossed his hand in the air, leaning back in his chair.

"Sam, I'm telling ya, I don't think Dad wants to be found." Dean said quietly, calmly, looking at the younger man. Sam looked away, disappointed. I understood what he was feeling, the absence of John was being felt by all of us, only Dean seemed to be holding up ok, but I knew deep down it was hitting him harder than he was letting on.

Dean turned the laptop to face Sam. "Check this out." He said, changing the subject. "It's a news item out of Planes Courier. Ankeny, Iowa. It's only about a hundred miles from here."

"'The mutilated body was found near the victim's car, parked on 9 Mile Road.'" Sam said, reading the article.

"Keep going." Dean waved him on.

"'Authorities are unable to provide a realistic description of the killer. The sole eyewitness, whose name has been withheld, is quoted as saying the attacker was invisible.'" Dean raised his eyebrows, nodding his head at us both.

"Could be something interesting." I said. _Any distraction would be better than nothing right now,_ I thought.

"Or it could be nothing at all. One freaked out witness who didn't see anything? Doesn't mean it's the Invisible Man." Sam countered.

"But what if it is? Dad would check it out." Dean said.

* * *

**Fraternity**

I waited in the car, somehow it just wouldn't quite work trying to convince a bunch of frat boys that Dean and Sam were from a different college just seeking a place to stay while they were in town. My head was aching and had been for days, ever since the blow from the shapeshifter. I'd managed to hide it so far from Dean and Sam, but it wasn't really going away. I knocked back a couple of ibuprofen with some water, and lay my arm across my eyes, head back on the seat. Maybe if I could just get some decent sleep...

Dean banged on the roof scaring me awake.

"Rise and shine!" He called out, jumping in the front seat. I shook my head, realising I'd fallen asleep.

"Hmmm... how'd it go?" I asked as Sam got into the passenger seat.

"Victim's girlfriend was a freshman, local girl, reverend's daughter...you'd like her probably." Dean answered, looking back at me.

* * *

**St. Barnabus Church**

The community had gathered for afternoon service, I slipped in quietly ahead of the boys so as to not draw attention by having us all enter together. Smiling at the people in the back row, I quickly moved down about half way from the back and sat down, listening to the service.

"Our hearts go out to the family of a young man who perished. And my personal prayers of thanks go out as well because I believe he died trying to protect my daughter." Reverend Sorensen was saying. He cast a glance at a young lady in the front row, her brown hair tied back half up, half down. _Lori. _

"And now, as time heals all our wounds, we should reflect on what this tragedy means. To us, as a church..." The reverend's words were cut short by the sound of the door slamming as Dean and Sam entered together. I cringed, shaking my head. _Way to be discreet boys. _

The reverend and half the people in the church looked up at them, and Dean shrugged apologetically.

"...as a community, and as a family. The loss of a young person is particularly tragic. A life unlived is the saddest of passings." The reverend continued.

The boys sat down in the back row, Lori had turned and was staring back at them.

"So, please, let us pray. For peace, for guidance, and for the power to protect our children." The reverend said, and I bowed my head, I'd pulled my rosary out and was holding the crucifix and amulet in my hands as I said a quiet prayer for the passing of Rich, for our safety as we looked into whatever the cause had been, and for the safety of everyone in the community until we could get to the bottom of it.

After the mass, I loitered around, but did not speak to Dean and Sam. We'd decided to approach this from a dual aspect. If they were meant to be frat brothers from Ohio, then I would be posing, if the opportunity arose, as a sorority sister, recently transferred.

I was following Lori and another girl with dark skin and wavy black hair out of the church. The girl was trying to get Lori to come out with some friends, and let her hair down a little.

"I can't. It's Sunday night." Lori was saying to her.

"It's just us girls. We're gonna do tequila shots and watch Reality Blues." The other girl replied.

"My Dad makes dinner every Sunday night." Lori said, shaking her head.

"Come on, Lori. I know this has been hard, but you are allowed to have fun." The girl said, and Lori smiled, promising to try and come along. The girls hugged and the friend left.

Sam's eyes met mine and I diverted off to stand by a group of people, pretending to check my phone messages as he approached Lori.

"Are you Lori?" He asked.

"Yeah." She replied, looking up at him.

"My name is Sam. This is my brother, Dean." Sam said, and Dean waved at her saying hi. "We just transferred here to the university." Sam said without missing a beat.

"I saw you inside." Lori nodded.

"We don't wanna bother you. We just heard about what happened and..." Sam stalled.

"We wanted to say how sorry we were." Dean finished, looking sympathetically at her.

"I kind of know what you're going through. I-I saw someone..get hurt once. It's something you don't forget." Sam said, laying on the good boy charm.

Reverend Sorensen was approaching them and I headed him off at the pass, smiling and extending my hand.

"Reverend Sorensen, I just wanted to say that was a truly inspiring sermon you gave." I said, he took my hand and shook it, returning my smile.

"Thank you very much. It's so nice to find young people who are open to the Lord's message." I smiled and nodded. "Have we met before?" He asked.

"No, I've just arrived in town. I'm supposed to be meeting with someone from Theta Sorority, it's our sister sorority in Arizona. I could really use some friendly faces."

"Oh, well let me introduce you to my daughter Lori, she belongs to Theta." Reverend said and I beamed a smile at him.

"Really? What a small world!" I allowed him to lead me over to where Dean, Sam and Lori were talking. Lori looked up at us and nodded as her father and I stopped near them.

"Dad, this is Sam and Dean. They're new students." She introduced.

"Well, if it isn't the day for it." The Reverend said. "This here is..." he paused, realising he hadn't gotten my name.

"Beth." I said, smiling at them all.

"Beth..." The reverend continued. "She's from Theta's sister sorority in Arizona, and needs to meet up with whoever is in charge with relocations and memberships." He said to Lori, who was looking me over.

I felt a little self-conscious. I'd dressed in black dress slacks with a light purple blouse and white knitted vest over the top. I felt like an idiot, but I had to look the part. I started to feel for Dean when he complained about his 'monkey suits' that we made him wear on occasion.

We all stood around looking at each other awkwardly for a moment and then Dean jumped in. "Reverend, so we're new in town, actually." Dean said, stepping away slightly, the Reverend inclined his head. "And, uh, we're looking for a, um, a church group." I nodded, walking with them.

"Yes, me too, do you have anything like that, maybe a youth group?" I asked, knowing that Dean wouldn't be able to carry this conversation too long. Dean threw me a grateful look and walked with us, pretending interest in what the reverend had to say about a new group forming at the university which would be doing missionary work and spreading the Lord's word.

I glanced back and saw Sam deep in conversation with Lori, Dean nodded, encouraging me to keep the reverend talking. Eventually we got away from the Reverend, promising to stop in for more information on the youth group, before heading back to the car to wait for Sam. He showed up shortly after jumping in the back seat and leaning forward.

"So you believe her?" Dean asked, looking at him.

"I do." Sam said.

"Yeah, I think she's hot, too." Dean smiled. I rolled my eyes and Sam frowned at him.

"No, man, there's something in her eyes. And listen to this: she heard scratching from the roof. Found the bloody body suspended upside-down over the car." He leaned back, a certain look of intrigue in his eyes.

"Wait, the body suspended? That sounds like the -" Dean trailed off.

"Yeah, I know, the Hook Man legend." Sam finished.

"That's one of the most famous urban legends ever. You don't think that we're dealing with _the Hook Man?" _I said, running a hand across my forehead.

"Every urban legend has a source." Sam answered. "A place where it all began."

"Yeah but what about the phantom scratches and the tire punctures... and the invisible killer?" I asked.

"Well, maybe the Hook Man isn't a man at all. What if it's some kind of spirit?" Dean asked. There was only one way to find out.

* * *

**Library**

You've seen one library, you've seen them all, pretty much. Big, echoing, dusty halls with students or old people crammed into them. I twirled a pen in my fingers and stared at the book in front of me, the words all blurred into each other, and I blinked, hard, trying to focus. At least the lighting was better in this one, I suppose it came with being a university library, more money to pay the lighting bills.

A librarian walked over to Dean and Sam down the other end of the table and placed two archive boxes in front of them, they looked old, and dusty. I noticed the way she looked at Dean, not unlike most other women, like she'd like to get him alone in a dark corner somewhere and do unmentionable things to him. I smirked.

"Here you go. Arrest records going back to 1851." She said shaking her head and looking at us like we were nuts. Dean blew some dust of the top box and coughed.

"Thanks." He said with a grimace. The librarian walked away, flicking her long red hair behind her. She was attractive and Dean turned to give her an appraising look, I shook my head and went back to the pen I was twirling in my fingers, losing myself in my troubling thoughts again.

"So, this is how you spent four good years of your life, huh?" Dean asked Sam.

"Welcome to higher education." Sam shrugged, flipping the lid back on one of the boxes and starting to go through the contents.

Hours later and we hadn't really made any progress. I had wandered off to the bathroom and found myself in one of the back, out of the way aisles, idly running my hand along old encyclopaedias. I liked the feel of the old vinyl covers along my hand, it was comforting, in an odd way. I heard familiar footsteps coming and looked up as Dean rounded the corner.

"Hey, there you are." He said, coming closer. "What are you doing back here?"

I shrugged and forced a smile to my face. "Just looking." I said without much conviction.

"For what?" He asked, glancing at the books. "Cause I don't think you're gonna find anything about Hook Man in these old things." He gestured at the encyclopaedias.

"Yeah, I know." I said, crossing my arms over my chest to hug myself.

"Beth..." He said with a warning in his tone. "What's going on with you? You've barely said a word since we got here."

I shrugged. My mind was running wild with new, fresh, uncomfortable thoughts. Thoughts that had been planted by that shapeshifter and some of the things he had said.

"Look, I need you focused, you gotta talk to me Beth." Dean said, coming up to place a hand on my shoulder and look me in the eyes. I blew out a breath and looked away.

"It's just... do you ever wish you were somewhere else?" I said quietly.

"Hell yes!" He said, "Anywhere except this boring old library, geez. What I wouldn't give for a nice big burger right now and a cold beer..." He trailed off, realising that's not what I meant.

"What?" He asked, confused.

"Well, you know, maybe you could have gone off to college, made friends, settled down and had a real life." I shrugged again, keeping my eyes trained on the books in front of me.

"You see me as the college type?" He asked with a laugh, shaking his head.

I smiled. "Well, no. But you never know Dean. I mean, maybe you could have been. Maybe with the right encouragement, the right person …"

"Wait... person? What's this really about?" He asked, stepping even closer and placing his hands on my arms, turning me to face him.

"Well, it's not as if we had a lot of options Dean." I said quietly, voicing what I really feared.

"You mean, us?" He asked. I nodded, biting my lip. "Are you saying you settled for me because it was convenient?" He asked, frowning.

I looked up sharply, eyes wide. "No! No, that's not what I'm saying!" I reached out and touched his face. He looked hesitant. "Dean come on, you know you're the only man I've ever..." I trailed off, looking at him. "I love you Dean Winchester, and that is _never _going to change."

"Then what's the problem?" He asked, looking relieved.

"Well, maybe it's the other way around. Maybe you could have... would have... chosen someone else if I wasn't around..." I said softly. "Someone like... Lori." I ventured.

"Huh?" He looked at me, now he really looked confused, and then he recalled the comment earlier where he'd told Sam that he thought she was hot.

"Oh come on, Beth, it's not like you to be jealous." He said looking at me again.

"What? No, no I'm not jealous, that's not what I mean." I shook my head. I took a deep breath, this conversation was going to hell in a hand basket, I had to get back on track.

"Then what?" He asked.

"Dean, the shapeshifter..." He tensed. We hadn't really talked about this. "It said things... things that didn't sound so far fetched." I whispered.

"Like what?" He prodded.

"Like... how you had plans, but you got stuck with Dad, _and me_ – when Sam went off to college, and it was so angry... like Sam had gotten out and free, and you were trapped. That I was a burden, that _our life _was a burden." I stopped, shaking my head. I didn't want to think about it, I didn't want to consider what Dean really thought about our life.

"Beth, these things, they lie." He said, bringing my chin up so I'd look him in the eyes. He paused, looking at me, assessing what I had said. His eyes softened, and he smiled.

"I don't want another life." He said quietly, echoing the words I'd said to John so many years ago. "Sure, maybe once in a while I think about it, but what on earth would we do? Where would _we _go?" He asked, stressing the 'we'. I sighed. I didn't have an answer for that either, but I had asked the question a few times.

"As for wanting anyone else." He continued. "You're the _only _ray of light in this messed up freaked out existence we lead. How could you even think that I'd want some... Pollyanna, green cardigan wearing, wide-eyed sorority girl over you?"

I sighed, looking him in the eyes. "But the shape shifter..."

"_Lied!" _He finished the sentence forcefully, looking me in eyes. "It lied." He kissed my forehead before leaning his brow against mine, our noses touching. His lips softly brushed over mine. "You're all I want." He said, and we stood like this for a handful of moments.

"I know I don't say it enough." Dean said quietly.

"You say it enough." I answered back. "Without sounding all cliché... you say it best when you say nothing at all." He pulled back just a little and I saw the twitch of amusement in the corner of his mouth.

"Oh yeah?" He said, swaying in closer, his hands going to my hips and pulling me into him. "Like this?" He asked, kissing me gently on the lips. I nodded.

"Mmhmmm." I murmured.

"And... like this?" He asked again, softly catching my lip in his teeth and giving a little nip before sliding his tongue in to find mine. He moaned softly and deepened the kiss, his hand coming up to run through my hair, holding my head firmly. I felt my knees go a little weak and wrapped my arms around him for support.

He growled a little urgently and pushed me back against the wall, leaning in to me, the kiss getting more heated. He'd slid his knee between my legs and was gently rubbing it against me, I broke the kiss and trailed small kisses along his jawline, to his neck where I nuzzled him, breathing in his scent, fighting to catch my breath as he nibbled at my earlobe.

Someone cleared their throat behind us. Dean pulled away with a frustrated groan and turned, a smile on his face. One of the librarians, an old frigid looking thing with a tight bun and silver framed glasses stood at the end of the aisle giving us a disapproving look.

"Uh, hey, ma'am." Dean said, awkwardly, glancing at me as I tried to smooth out my hair, tucking it behind my ears.

"We were errr..." He grabbed one of the encyclopaedias off the shelf quickly. "Found it!" He declared triumphantly. He grabbed my wrist with his free hand and pulled me past her like we were a pair of high school teenagers who had just been busted making out in the janitor's closet.

I shrugged at the woman who hadn't said a word, just looked at me as I passed. "Can you blame me?" I asked, with a grin. "Just look at him." I winked.

"Beth!" Dean said, feigning shock, and pulling me away by the hand. I think I saw the librarian smile before we were on our way back to Sam. _Maybe she's not so frigid after all _I thought to myself with a smile.

Sam was waiting for us when we got back, he eyed us curiously when he saw Dean holding my hand, noting us all flushed and slightly out of breath.

"Hey," Sam said to us both. "Where have you been? Wait, don't answer that. I don't want to know." He answered for us, I blushed and he laughed.

"Seems Dean has found out some of the _highlights_ of higher education, and study groups." He chuckled. Dean dropped my hand a little self-consciously, clearing his throat.

"Shut up!" He retorted. Sam laughed.

"OK. Well hey, check this out." He said, standing up and leading us to another table where old reports were in files. "1862. A preacher named Jacob Karns was arrested for murder. Looks like he was so angry over the red light district in town that one night he killed 13 prostitutes."

I scanned the aged piece of paper, reading out loud the part that jumped out at me. "Some of the deceased were found in their bed, sheets soaked with blood. Others suspended upside down from the limbs of trees as a warning against sins of the flesh." I looked up, grimacing.

Dean was looking at another page. "Get this, the murder weapon? Looks like the preacher lost his hand in an accident. Had it replaced with a silver hook." My eyes widened at that revelation, I felt a shiver run down my back.

"And it all happened on 9 Mile Road." Sam finished. "Same place where the frat boy was killed." Dean looked impressed.

"Nice job, Dr. Venkmen. Let's check it out." Dean said. Sam gathered all the research together and we made for the door.

* * *

**Theta Sorority House**

Night time had fallen while we were in the library. Dean pulled up in front of the Theta Sorority house and opened the trunk of the car, tossing me a shotgun, he handed me a few shells and I loaded them into the gun. He took out a rifle and handed it to Sam.

"Here you go." He said.

"If it is a spirit, buckshot won't do much good." Sam said, pointing out the obvious.

"They're rock salt." He said, handing the same shells to Sam that he had me.

"Huh. Salt being a spirit deterrent." Sam said thoughtfully. Dean was pulling out a coil of rope and shutting the trunk.

"It won't kill them. But it'll slow them down." I said, putting the shotgun in my overnight bag. Sam had never asked how it was that I had shot at a woman in white and made it vanish when it was attacking him. I kind of thought he'd known about the rock salt ammo, but now I recalled that we'd made it after he went to college.

"That's pretty good," Sam said. "You and Dad think of this?" He asked Dean.

"Actually Beth did..." Dean said, throwing me a smile. "You don't have to be a college graduate to be a genius." He said. I felt my cheeks redden at the compliment.

"Ok," Dean said, turning to me. "You sure you're gonna be all right?" He asked, concerned, looking over at the sorority house. It suddenly occurred to me that he wasn't that keen on splitting up this time round.

"Yeah, yeah I'll be fine. It's just a sorority detail... how dangerous can it be?" I said with a smile.

"Oh I don't know... those naked pillow fights, all night truth or dares, sexy underwear..." Dean said swaggering up to me, hands on my hips. "Hmmm, come to think of it, maybe you'll need back-up." He raised his eyebrow and gave me a suggestive look. I laughed and pushed him in the shoulder.

"Get out of here you fool." I said with a smile. "Give me a call and let me know if you find anything. You know where I'll be." He nodded, giving me a look that promised we'd be finishing our 'conversation' from earlier at a later time.

The boys pulled away from the house, on their way to 9 Mile Road to see what they could find out. I took a deep breath and crossed the road to the house just in time to see Reverend Sorensen pull up to the curb with Lori. Lori waved at me through the windshield and I waved back with a smile, taking a few steps up to the porch where I decided to wait for her.

They seemed to be having a heated discussion, and suddenly Lori got out of the car, her father calling out her name as she slammed the door. She didn't look back, just kept walking up the steps where I was waiting for her.

"Hey..." She smiled, her demeanour changing instantly.

"Hi." I said. "I talked to someone, Simone, I think? About staying for a few nights, until I figure out what I'm doing?"

"Yeah, of course. Come in. There's a spare bed in the room next to mine." Lori said, opening the door.

"Perfect." I smiled, and took a look around the front porch before following her inside.

* * *

We were half way through some romantic comedy when my phone rang, it was Dean.

"Hey." I said, slipping away to the hallway.

"Hey, how's it going?" He asked, he sounded tired.

"Yeah, fine... just me and the girls doing a movie night." I said, taking the opportunity to have a look around the other rooms.

"Yeah? Any sign of our friend?"

"Nope, all quiet on the homefront." I stated, moving back down the hallway toward the living room.

"Good... so uh... what are you wearing?" Dean asked suggestively.

I laughed. "Come and see for yourself, I could use a good night kiss."

"Yeah... I'd love to. Might be a slight problem with that." He said.

"Why? What's wrong?" I asked.

"You're kind of my one phone call..." He said, chuckling.

"You're in _jail?"_ I asked incredulously, a couple of girls near me turned to look, curious expressions. I smiled and stepped back down the hall. "What the hell happened?"

"Yeah, funny story, actually..." Dean started, he filled me in on how they'd been down at 9 Mile Road, and Sam had nearly shot a sheriff with rock salt, and they got hauled in to the police station. He was working on story to get them out though, and I wasn't to worry, just keep my eyes on Lori and make sure she was safe.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. "Ok. Well, please try not to get into any more trouble. If you're still there in the morning I'm going to have to come break you out." I said quietly. Dean chuckled.

"Wouldn't expect anything less." He said. "I gotta go, stay safe."

I hung up and let out a long breath.

"Everything ok?" Lori asked, suddenly next to me.

"Yeah, uh, every thing's fine. Just some, boyfriend issues." I shrugged. "Nothing I can do about it tonight. Besides, it's girls night in." I said with a laugh. She smiled and we headed back to the movie.

* * *

Several hours later we were all headed to bed. I did a quick search of the perimeter, and then checked all the doors and windows. Not that locks would keep out a spirit, but I felt better about it just the same.

Changing into some pyjamas, I stepped out into the hallway and crossed the hallway to Lori's room. I could hear her moving around and water running in the bathroom. I cautiously stuck my head in the room, it was dark but the light from the hallway lit the room up enough for me to see. Taylor was asleep in her bed, back turned to the door.

The bathroom light switched off and Lori stepped out into the room. I ducked back into the hallway. She hesitated at the door for a moment before getting into her own bed. There was nothing out of sorts that I could tell so I went back to my room. Celia, my new room-mate was fast asleep, so I crawled into bed, putting the shotgun under my pillow. I fluffed a second pillow and put it on top of the other, leaning back to stare out the open door across the hallway. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

I rolled over, stretching, and realised that the day had started without me. Sunlight was streaming in the window. When had I fallen asleep? _Since when did I sleep?! _Mentally kicking myself I jumped out of bed, looked over at Lori's room. She was still asleep. I took a breath and went into the bathroom to wash off my face and brush my hair back into a ponytail.

The stillness of the morning was shattered moments later by Lori's screams. I was across the hall in seconds, running in to find Lori on her bed, terrified. Spinning around there was blood _everywhere. _I wouldn't have seen it unless I was actually in the room. Taylor was gutted, lying on the bed, blood pooled all over the floor and I realised belatedly I was standing in it.

"Oh shit. Lori, Lori!" I cried, grabbing her and forcing her to look at me. "Are you ok?" I asked, she didn't reply. I shook her again. "Are you hurt?" She shook her head, trembling.

"We got to get you out of here." I pulled her from the bed, easing her around the blood and into the hallway. The other women had come to see what the screaming was about and were in shock.

"Someone call the police." I instructed them, taking Lori into my room. I grabbed a towel and wiped my feet dry. _Stay calm. Stay calm. The Hook man was here and I didn't hear a thing! _Swearing softly to myself, I found some shoes and pulled them on, berating myself for falling asleep.

I was outside with Lori and her father when I saw Sam and Dean – they must have followed the police here. Relief washed over me as I spotted them driving by. Lori's father was arguing with the Sheriff and insisting on taking her home. I excused myself, telling Lori I'd drop by later, and made my way back into the house. I worked my way through police and confused, upset girls who were being interviewed. I'd already given my statement, now I wanted a better look at the room.

There was another Sheriff in the room, so I waited him out across the hall. He headed down the stairs and I crossed to Lori's room, entering quietly. The door to the walk-in wardrobe started to creak and I leaned against the hall way door, crossing my arms, waiting. Sam came out first and I couldn't resist.

"You know... I'm fairly certain I could get you both arrested again for breaking into a sorority house..." Sam jumped, Dean startled behind him.

"Jesus Beth!" Sam said, "don't do that!" I laughed, and stepped away from the wall, looking over at Dean.

"You took your time." I teased, turning to look around the room, cautious not to step in the blood, again.

"Well you know, can't rush perfection." Dean quipped, stepping further out of the wardrobe. He was staring at the wall behind me and I turned to get another look at what I'd already seen.

Carved in blood on the wall read the words "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?"

"That's right out of the legend." Sam said, gesturing at the wall.

"Yeah, that's classic Hook Man all right." Dean said, and tapped his nose. "It's definitely a spirit."

The room had a distinctive ozone smell to it and I nodded.

"Yeah, I've never smelled ozone this strong before." I said absently, moving to get a better look at the symbol under the writing. Dean was looking out the window at the movement below. The symbol was of a large cross with four smaller crosses in each of it's corners. "Does this look familiar to you?" I asked, looking back at Sam.

"Yeah, yeah it does." Sam said.

"Come on, we gotta get out of here," Dean said, nodding out the window. The boys went out the window they'd come in, just in case, and I slipped down the stairs with my bag, shotgun hidden safely inside, to join them at the Impala.

Sam had a folder out when I got there and was going through the articles we'd gotten at the library.

"It's the same symbol." Sam said, pointing at one of the articles. "Seems like it is the spirit of Jacob Karns."

"All right," Dean said, "so let's find the dude's grave, salt and burn the bones, and put him down."

Sam was reading from the article. "After execution, Jacob Karns was laid to rest in an Old North Cemetery. In an unmarked grave." They both looked annoyed, I crossed my arms, feeling that headache coming on again.

"Super..." Dean said.

"OK. So we know it's Jacob Karns. But we still don't know where he'll manifest next. Or why." I said. "I mean, I didn't hear _a thing _last night, _if _Taylor saw him, she didn't make a sound." They both thought about this.

"I'll take a wild guess about why. I think your little friend Lori has something to do with this." Dean said. We all got in the car, and I leaned forward.

"So where to?"

* * *

**College Party  
**_**later that night**_

Sam and I were standing in the middle of the party, people were laughing, drinking, dancing, having fun all around us. I fought off the sinking guilt that I'd failed to protect Taylor the previous night and kept a look out for Lori, who didn't seem to be here.

"Beth," Sam said, seeming to understand what was gong through my head. "You couldn't have done anything more than what you did."

I shrugged, I wasn't so sure... if I'd just managed to stay away.

"Really!" He said, looking me in the eyes. I sighed, and nodded.

Dean came waltzing through the crowd, a smile plastered to his face as he winked at a few girls who were eyeing him off.

"Man, you've been holding out on me. This college thing is awesome!" Dean said to Sam. Sam was looking uncomfortable.

"Yeah, this wasn't really my experience." He said loudly over the music.

"Let me guess. Libraries, studying, straight A's?" Dean asked. Sam nodded.

Dean laughed and looked at me. "What a geek!" I smiled weakly.

"All right, you do your homework?" Dean asked, and Sam started to unroll a piece of paper.

"Yeah. It was bugging me, right? So how is the Hook Man tied up with Lori? So I think I came up with something." We moved into a quieter part of the house where we could talk. Dean was reading the papers Sam had passed to him.

"1932. Clergyman arrested for murder. 1967. Seminarian held in hippie rampage." Dean said.

"There's a pattern here. In both cases, the suspect was a man of religion who openly preached against immorality. And then found himself wanted for killings he claimed were the work of an _invisible force. _Killings, carried out – get this – with a sharp instrument." Sam filled us in.

"What's the connection to Lori?" Dean asked, looking at the papers.

"A man of religion? Who openly preaches against immorality?" Sam said. It made sense and I was nodding.

"Except maybe this time, instead of saving the whole town, he's just trying to save his only daughter?" I said. Dean looked at both of us.

"Reverend Sorensen... you think he's summoning the spirit?" He asked.

"Maybe," Sam said. "Or you know how a poltergeist can haunt a person instead of a place?"

"Either way, you should keep an eye on Lori tonight." Dean said, looking at me. I nodded, swallowing hard. "And you keep an eye on _her." _Dean instructed Sam, pointing at me. I opened my mouth to protest and was met with a steely gaze. I closed it again, wasn't going to argue this one.

"What about you?" Sam asked. Dean looked around the party with a sigh.

"I'm gonna go see if I can find that unmarked grave." He said reluctantly, shaking his head in disappointment. I patted him on the back – our party days were way behind us, in fact they'd never really started.

* * *

**Lori's House**

Lori and her father were arguing in the upstairs window. Sam and I watched silently for a while, and suddenly the light went out. "Guess that's my cue." I said, starting to cross the street to knock on the door. Instead, the door opened and Lori stepped on to the porch, looking at us both.

"Oops." I said, _busted. _

Lori crossed to us, smiling. "I saw you both from upstairs," She said. "What are you guys doing here, together?"

"Uh, we're not together." Sam said, looking at me. I looked at Lori, shaking my head.

"No, we just bumped into each other..." I said. "I was coming to see how you were."

Lori smiled gratefully, and looked questioningly at Sam.

"I was just keeping an eye on the place." He said, looking shyly at the ground. "I was worried."

"About me?" She asked, a tentative smile playing on her lips.

"Yeah. Sorry." Sam said.

"I'm uh... I'm gonna just, head off," I said, winging it. Sam frowned at me and I shook my head. She was clearly more interested in seeing him than me. "I mean, you look like you're ok, and I just wanted to check. And now Sam is here... well, you know." I grabbed my phone. "I should probably check on that boyfriend of mine anyway." I said, Lori nodded at me with a smile. I gave her a quick hug and told her to call if she needed anything, then I headed off down the street.

As soon as I was out of sight I doubled back around through the bushes. Thankfully there was a park opposite the Sorensen house, so I had plenty of cover. Sam and Lori were now sitting on a bench, talking.

"It's like I'm cursed or something." Lori was saying. "People around me keep dying."

"I know how you feel." Sam said honestly, a sadness passing over his eyes as I knew he was thinking about Jess. Lori leaned in to him and looked at him, like she was about to bare her soul.

"No one will talk to me any more. Except you. The sheriff thinks I'm a suspect. And you know what my dad will say? Pray. Have faith. What does he know about faith?" Lori said, looking at Sam. She was wringing her hands and getting upset.

"I heard you guys fighting before." Sam said.

"He's seeing a woman. A _married _woman. I just found out. She comes to our church with her husband. I know her kids. And he talks to me about _religion_? About _morality_? It's like, on one hand, you know, just do what you want and be happy. But he taught me, raised me to believe that if you do something wrong you will get punished. I just don't know what to think any-more." She was clearly conflicted, and in the back of my mind alarm bells started going off.

She reached over, slowly, and hugged Sam. He hesitated at first, but then returned the hug. I watched, uncomfortably, as she ran her hand up into his hair, coming around to kiss him. I looked down, feeling wrong, like I was watching something I shouldn't. Sam kissed her back at first, but then pulled away.

"Sam?" She asked, confused.

"Lori, I can't." Sam whispered.

"That someone you lost?" She asked, seeming to understand. Sam stared at her before nodding. "I'm sorry." She said softly.

Reverend Sorensen appeared in the doorway, looking across the road at them.

"Lori! Come inside, please." He called out.

"I'll come in when I'm ready!" Lori yelled at him, getting angry.

Suddenly I watched as the Hook Man appeared behind the Reverend out of nowhere, and the glint of silver as his hook pierced the Reverend's shoulder. I pulled my gun out of my bag and was running across the street, Sam hot on my heels with his own gun. We entered the house, the Reverend was screaming from upstairs.

"No! No, please! No!" We took the stairs two at a time, Sam slightly in the lead. The bedroom door slammed shut and Sam kicked it open. I entered, gun at the ready. The Hook Man was on top of the Reverend, his hook raised in the air. "No! No, no!" The reverend screamed again. I didn't hesitate, and shot the Hook Man in the side.

The Hook Man turned to attack, and Sam shot him again. There was a shatter of dust, and glass as the window in the bedroom shattered from the bullet flying through it. I turned to Sam, catching my breath and we exchanged a concerned look.

Lori ran into the room. "Dad! Dad!" She knelt down next to the reverend, telling him he would be ok. We watched on, vaguely I wondered how we were going to explain my reappearance to Lori.

* * *

**Hospital**

We were at the hospital, Lori's Dad was in the emergency room, he was stable, but he wouldn't be awake for some time. I had just finished giving my statement to the Sheriff, explaining that I'd been to visit Lori, was walking home when I heard the screams from her Dad, so I'd run back to help. I left out the fact that I'd been carrying a shotgun, it had been back in my bag by the time Lori made it into the room. Now I was standing in the hallway listening to Sam give his version of the story.

"We were just talking. Then Lori's dad came out. And then he appeared." Sam said.

"A big man? Carrying a weapon, some kind of a hook?" The Sheriff asked.

Sam nodded in earnest. "Yes, sir."

"Ever seen him before?" The Sheriff asked.

"No, sir." Sam answered.

"Son, it seems every time I turn around, I'm seeing you. I suggest you try to stay out of trouble." Sam nodded.

"Yes sir." He said giving him the puppy-dog eyes.

I stood up as I saw Dean coming down the hallway, two officers trying to restrain him.

"No, it's all right, I'm with him. He's my brother." Dean raised his arm up, calling to Sam. "Hey! Brother!" Sam and the Sheriff turned to look at Dean, who smiled and waved.

"Let him through." The Sheriff said.

Dean and Sam walked toward each other, and I pushed myself off the wall. Dean looked Sam over.

"You ok?" He asked, patting Sam on the arm, glancing back at me.

"You ok?" He asked again, moving past Sam to me, a hand protectively at my waist.

We both nodded. "Yeah." Sam said. We started walking back down the hall the way Dean had come.

"What the hell happened?" Dean asked quietly.

"Hook man." Sam answered, looking at him.

"You saw him?" Dean asked.

"Damn right. Why didn't you torch the bones?" Sam whispered urgently, turning to face Dean and stopping.

"What are you talking about, I did. You sure it's the spirit of Jacob Karns?" Dean said, shaking his head.

"It sure as hell looked like him." I said, running a hand through my hair.

"And that's not all," Sam said. "I don't think the spirit is latching on to the reverend."

"Well yeah, the guy wouldn't send the Hook Man after himself." Dean said glancing back down the hallway to the reverend's room.

"I think it's latching on to Lori. Last night she found out her father is having an affair with a married woman." Sam said.

"So what?" Dean shrugged.

"So she's upset about it. She's upset about the _immorality _of it. She told me she was raised to believe that if you do something wrong, you get punished." Sam explained.

"Ok, so she's conflicted. And the spirit of Preacher Karns is latching on to her repressed emotions, and maybe he's doing the punishing for her?" Dean said, thinking it through.

"Right. Rich comes on too strong, Taylor tries to make her into a party girl, Dad has an affair." I said, piecing it together.

"Remind me not to piss this girl off." Dean said looking at me. I smiled. "But I burned those bones, I buried them in salt, why didn't that stop him?" Dean asked.

"You must have missed something." Sam said.

Dean thought about it and shook his head. "No. I burned everything in that coffin."

"Did you get the hook?" I asked.

"The hook?" Dean asked, looking at me.

"Well, it was the murder weapon, and in a way, it was part of him." Sam agreed.

"So, like the bones, the hook is a source of his power." Dean said, nodding in realisation.

"So if we find the hook..." I said

"We stop the Hook Man." Dean and Sam said in unison, smiling at each other.

* * *

**Library**

Maybe it was just me, but I could have sworn that repressed looking librarian was giving Dean and Sam a good once-over as we stood around looking through more papers. I chuckled to myself and continued to flip through the old brown paper.

"Here's something, I think." Dean said, and I leaned over to look upside-down at what he was reading. "Log book, Iowa State Penitentiary," Dean explained. "Karns, Jacob. Personal affects: disposition thereof."

"Does it mention the hook?" I asked.

"Yeah, maybe," He read a little further, I couldn't make the writing out from my angle so stood up to walk around and join him. "Upon execution, all earthly items shall be remanded to the prisoner's house of worship, St. Barnabas Church." Dean said suddenly.

"Isn't that where Lori's father preaches?" I asked.

"Yeah." Sam said. "Where Lori _lives." _He added.

"Maybe that's why the Hook Man has been haunting reverends and reverend's daughters for the past 200 years." Dean said, looking thoughtful.

"Yeah, but if the hook were at the church or Lori's house, don't you think someone might have seen it? I mean, a bloodstained, silver-handled hook?" I asked, looking dubious.

"Check the church records." Dean said.

Half an hour later Sam found what we were looking for.

"St Barnabas donations, 1862." Sam read from the ledger he had in front of him. "Received silver-handled hook from state penitentiary. Reforged." He sat back with a sigh. "They melted it down. Made it into something else."

* * *

**St Barnabas Church**

"All right, we can't take any chances." Dean said walking toward the church. "Anything silver goes in the fire."

"I agree." Sam said. "So, Lori's still at the hospital. We'll have to break in."

"All right. Take your pick." Dean said.

"I'll take the house." Sam said looking at the front door.

"Ok." Dean grinned. "You're with me." He said to me with a wink. Sam started to walk off.

"Hey!" Dean said, getting his attention. "Stay out of her underwear drawer." He chuckled, and then headed off to the church.

We had the furnace in the basement lit in record time, Dean was tossing silver items in there as I came down the stairs with some more. I tossed them in and watched the silver start to melt.

"Well this is cosy." Dean said, taking me in his arms. "You know we never did get to finish that conversation earlier."

I laughed, running my hands along his torso. "You are incorrigible, you know that?" I said, smiling.

"Mmhmmm.." Dean said with a grin, leaning in to kiss me. We were interrupted by the sound of Sam appearing at the top of the stairs and broke apart with a sigh.

"I got everything that even looked silver." Sam said, dumping a bag of items in front of us.

"Better safe than sorry." Dean said, tossing a silver goblet into the fire. Suddenly footsteps sounded above us in the church. Dean pulled his gun out, gesturing toward the steps. "Move, move!" He whispered.

Dean led the way upstairs, followed by Sam, I brought up the rear. We exited the basement to the rear of the church, only to find Lori alone, sitting in the pew. Dean lowered his gun, indicating to me to follow, and we left Sam to talk to Lori, going back downstairs. I reached into the bag, and started tossing the rest of the items into the furnace.

We watched as all the items melted piece by piece.

"Well that should take care of that." Dean whispered and I nodded. I turned to head back up to the church, suddenly there was a scurry of feet over the floorboards above us, and I looked up to see Sam open the basement door. Only...

"Gun!" I yelled to Dean who reacted instantly, tossing me the shotgun I'd put on the ground. The Hook Man had appeared behind the basement door and sent his hook through it in Sam's directio. I raced for the stairs, taking a shot, but he had disappeared.

We ran up the stairs, I heard Lori scream and Sam lead her away. Breaking glass told us they had run to the front of the church again, and past the altar into the rectory. Lori screamed again and we moved toward them, hearing a struggle behind the wall in front. More items crashed and then I heard Sam yell in pain.

Lori went flying past us along the aisle, pulled by an invisible force. I swung the gun around, looking for the Hook Man, he was nowhere to be seen. Sam struggled into view, blood seeping through his jacket at his shoulder. Dean ran to Lori and grabbed her arm as she lay on the ground.

"Lori. You ok?" He asked, looking around. She nodded and started to get up, but the Hook Man appeared and knocked Dean flying into a wall where he crashed into a bookshelf, it collapsed on top of him. I swung my gun around and pulled the trigger but the Hook Man had moved too quick. He was moving toward Lori who was scrambling backwards while the Hook Man approached and I was out of ammo. I pulled the only other shell I had out of my jeans pocked and reloaded the gun. Sam went to grab the Hook Man. I had other plans.

"Sam, drop!" I ordered and when he hit the ground I shot the Hook Man clean through the back, he disappeared into dust.

"I thought we got all the silver." Sam said.

"So did I." I said, helping him up. Dean was groaning and standing up.

"Then why is he still here?" He asked, breathing hard.

"Well maybe we missed something." Sam said, looking around the church.

My eyes caught sight of the silver cross around Lori's neck, I'd seen her wearing it before, but never given it a second thought.

"Lori, where did you get that chain?" I asked quickly.

"My father gave it to me." She said as Sam pulled her to her feet.

"Where'd your dad get it?" Dean asked.

"He said it was a church heirloom, he gave it to me when I started school." She answered. More noise was starting, the walls seemed to shake, the Hook Man wasn't gone yet.

"Is it silver?!" Sam yelled.

"Yes!" She exclaimed.

Sam ripped the chain from her neck.

"I'm out of ammo." I said, emptying the shell cases from my gun. Dean tossed me a couple of rock salt rounds and I smiled, reloading. There was a sound in the hallway, a screech. I looked out to see a long scratch piercing through the plaster, but there was no Hook Man – he was invisible.

"Sam!" Dean threw his rifle and rock salt to his brother, Sam tossed Dean the necklace and Dean ran back toward the basement stairs. I moved to cover him, taking a couple of shots at the scratch, blasting the plaster to pieces.

Sam was struggling to reload his gun with his injured shoulder and hand, he snapped the barrel closed, but the Hook Man appeared and knocked the gun from his hands, it slid across the floor. I dove after it, needing the reloaded gun. The Hook Man was standing over Sam and Lori who had crawled into a corner. I swung the gun around just in time to see him stop, his arm raised in the air. Suddenly the hook started to melt, and the rest of his body flared up in fire, burning to ash before my very eyes.

I sunk back against the wall I was at and sighed, closing my eyes with a silent prayer of thanks.

* * *

"And you saw him too? The man with the hook?" The Sheriff was looking at Dean very suspiciously, as if he didn't quiet believe him.

"Yes, I told you, we all saw him. We fought him off and then he ran." Dean said.

"And that's all?" The Sheriff asked.

"Yeah, that's all." Dean said, his arm around me. I leaned in to him gratefully, tired, I felt like I hadn't slept in days.

The Sheriff started to say something. "Listen. You and your brother..."

"Oh don't worry, we're leaving town!" Dean interrupted, and led me away to the car, leaving the Sheriff with his mouth hanging open.

Lori walked up to me and gave me a hug.

"So... not really a sorority sister, right?" She asked.

"Not really." I confessed with a smile.

"Well, whatever, _whoever _you guys are. I'm glad you were around when you were." She smiled at us both.

"You take care of her." Lori said to Dean, nodding at me.

"Oh I will, don't you worry about that." Dean said with a grin, putting his arm around me again. "We do a pretty good job of taking care of each other."

She smiled and walked off to Sam, who was sitting on the back of an ambulance having his arm patched up.

I turned to Dean, pulling him into a hug. "You know, we _really _need a holiday." I said.

"You're not wrong there." He said, wincing as he flexed his shoulder.

"Come on, let's get you in the car." I said, leading him to the Impala. We were sitting in there, watching Sam as he walked away, a contemplative look on his face. Dean had his _deep in thought _face on, which usually meant he was up to no good. He watched in the side view mirror as Sam walked up to the car, getting into the back seat.

Dean looked back at him. "We could stay." He said simply. Sam shook his head sullenly. Dean looked back at Lori through the mirror and shook his head in disappointment. As Dean drove us away, I turned to chat to Sam, worried he might be taking Dean's advice to stay away from attachments a little too much to heart.

* * *

_**Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I'm glad you're liking the story so far :) And hello to all my new followers! Good to have you here :)**_

_**WeAsHuman – You'll see Beth has her moments with feeling insecure and unworthy of Dean's love – that shape shifter didn't do her any favours, but it's not quite jealousy, more that she thinks he could do better; we all have our inner demons, no? I absolutely LOVE Castiel and I can't wait until I get to write him. I'm seeing a lot of fun conversations between Beth and him. She is religious, so she's going to be a bit floored I think when Cas shows up – kind of awe struck perhaps? Not sure yet, but can't wait to get there with it :D**_

_**PS. Does anyone know if I can rename the pages in my Document Manager?**_


	8. Bugs

**A/N A little deviation from original storyline, but not too much. Sorry if it's crap, there wasn't a lot of story to work with from the show - but it did give me a little chance to explore their history together. **

* * *

**BUGS**

* * *

**Oklahoma Bar**

_**3 years ago**_

I took a sip of my drink watching as Dean lined up his shot. Our opponents were looking at him with a frown, not liking the direction this game of pool had taken. We'd lost the last two games, and the fact that they were about to lose this one was not something they were too happy about. Dean pocketed the black and stood up with a triumphant cry.

"Woot!" He said, throwing me a smile. I raised my eyebrow and made my way over to the men.

"Looks like it's time to pay up boys." I said, leaning on the table, looking them in the eyes.

One of the men looked like he was about to argue, but Dean stepped up with a stern look on his face and he thought better of it. Instead he threw the stack of bills down on the table and stormed off, his buddy not far behind him as they left the bar.

"Nice!" Dean said, grabbing up the money, pulling me into a headlock and kissing the top of my head affectionately. I laughed and pulled him further into the bar. My eyes caught sight of the older man over in a corner booth, reading a newspaper. We grabbed a couple of refills at the bar, ordered some nachos, and headed over to join him.

John looked up as we came over, a rare smile graced his face as he watched us laughing and shoving each other in a playful way. Dean saw his father watching and was suddenly all business, clearing his throat, nodding. He slid into the booth on one side, I took the other, leaning over to look at the newspaper.

"So, we got a new gig or what?" Dean asked, taking a sip of his beer.

"Maybe." John answered, nodding at the waitress as she brought over our nachos. "Oasis Plains, Oklahoma – not far from here. A gas company employee, Dustin Burwash, supposedly died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob." He grabbed a nacho and chewed thoughtfully.

"Huh?" Dean asked.

"Human mad cow disease." John answered, looking at him.

"Mad cow. Wasn't that on Oprah?" Dean asked, taking a nacho and chomping down on it.

"You watch Oprah?" I asked with a smirk. Dean looked at me and didn't say anything, just changed the subject.

"So, this guy eats a bad burger. Why is it our kind of thing?" He asked.

"Mad cow disease causes massive brain degeneration. It takes months, even years, for the damage to appear. But this guy, Dustin. Sounds like his brain disintegrated in about an hour, maybe less." John said, gesturing to the news article.

"Ok, that is weird." Dean said.

"Yeah. Now it could be a disease. Or it could be something much nastier." John stated, looking at us both.

"All right then. Oasis Plains, Oklahoma then. When do we leave?" I asked.

"_You _guys leave in the morning. I'm not coming." John said, looking at us.

"What?" Dean asked, shocked.

"You want us to go on our own?" I asked, just as shocked as Dean.

"Yeah well, you've been doing this long enough, you ought to be able to handle it. It's not like you need the old man around all the time is it? You're both big enough..." He nodded at Dean. "And smart enough," this time he nodded at me, "to handle this on your own."

"Wow... ok. Yeah, sure." Dean said, looking over at me. I could see the excitement building behind his guarded expression. Our first case together, alone. It was both exhilarating, and scary at the same time.

"Take the Impala. I'll find my own car and head out tonight." John said, taking a sip of his beer and sliding the keys to Dean.

"What? Where are you going?" Dean asked, looking at his father with a frown.

"I've got something I need to check out near San Jose." John said, finishing off his beer. Dean and I exchanged glances, he shrugged. "I'll be gone for a few days at least, you call me when you're done in Oasis Plains, and we'll see where to meet up after that." John instructed, and we both nodded.

John made to get out, and I slid from my side of the booth allowing him to stand up. He gave me a quick peck on the cheek and looked back at Dean.

"Don't do anything stupid, keep your heads on straight, and keep to the job." He said to Dean, before looking at me. "Stay safe, keep him out of trouble." He added to me. I smiled and nodded.

We watched in silence as John headed out of the bar, and then Dean punched me in the arm.

"Hey! Our first job!" He said excited. I smiled, rubbing my arm before he grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the door.

"We should get some rest." I said to him and he stopped to look at me. He smirked.

"Didn't you just hear him?" Dean asked. "He's leaving _tonight. _We're on our own! Come on, you can rest when we meet up with him again." He grinned as he leaned in to nip at my neck. "I don't think you'll be getting much rest tonight sweetheart."

* * *

**Oklahoma Gas & Power Company  
****_The Next Day_**

We got out of the car and walked toward the building. A small built man was putting a bag in his car. He looked up as we approached, Dean asked if he was Travis Weaver.

"Yeah, that's right." He responded.

"Are you the Travis who worked with Uncle Dusty?" I asked with a smile. He looked me up and down, shaking his head.

"Dustin never mentioned having a niece... or nephew." He looked over at Dean who shrugged.

"Really? Well, he sure mentioned you. He said you were the greatest." Dean lied.

"Yeah." I said with a smile, nodding.

Travis smiled back at me, "Oh, he did? Huh..." He looked bashful, liking the compliment.

"Listen, we wanted to ask you... what exactly happened out there?" Dean said.

"I'm not sure." Travis shrugged. "He fell in a sinkhole, I went to the truck to get some rope, and, uh... by the time I got back..." His voice trailed off and he looked away.

"What did you see?" I asked.

Travis shrugged. "Nothin'. Just Dustin." He replied.

"No wounds or anything?" I prompted.

"Well, he was bleeding... from his eyes and his ears, his nose. But that's it." Travis said, he was frowning, squinting into the sun.

"So you think it could be this whole mad cow thing?" Dean asked.

"I don't know. That's what the doctors are saying." Travis said.

"But if it was, he would've acted strange beforehand, like dementia, loss of motor control." I explained, looking at him. "You ever notice anything like that?"

"No, no way," Travis responded with a certainty. "But then, if it wasn't some disease, what the hell was it?"

"That's a good question." Dean said nodding.

"You know, can you tell us where this happened?" I asked. Travis nodded.

* * *

**Oasis Plains**

A little while later we were pulling into a new development area. New houses were being build all up and down the little street, workers moving about their daily construction work. A sign advertising luxury homes for sale was at the start of the street as we pulled in. The sinkhole was surrounded by police tape, but it was the only indication that anything untoward had happened in the near recent past.

Dean pulled the Impala into the curb and looked at the tape blowing in the breeze.

"Huh. What do you think?" He asked, looking over at me.

I was frowning, looking over at the tape too. "I don't know. But if that guy, Travis, was right. It happened pretty fast." I said. We got out of the car, crossing the road to the sinkhole. We climbed under the police tape, careful not to get too close to the edge in case it was unstable.

"So, what? Some sort of creature chewed on his brain?" Dean asked thoughtfully, looking down the hole, shining a flashlight into the darkness.

"No, there'd be an entry wound. Sounds like this thing worked from the inside." I said trying to see further into the hole.

"Huh. Looks like there's only room for one." Dean said. He picked up a coil of rope lying nearby and started to tie it around his waist.

"What are you doing?" I asked, he looked up and gestured to the hole, as if it didn't need an explanation.

"I'm smaller, _and lighter," _I said, crossing my arms. Dean stopped what he was doing and threw his hands down.

"Beth, we have no idea what's down there." He said, running a hand through his hair.

"And what, you're the big bad boy who can handle it better than me?" I asked, tossing him a steely gaze.

He sighed. "That's not what I meant."

"Yes, it was." I countered – pulling at the rope around his waist. "I'm going." I said determined, starting to tie the rope around me instead.

"Beth..." Dean growled warningly. I shook my head, looking up at him.

"I'm going." I said determined.

He blew a frustrated breath out, thinking about what I'd said. It was true, I was smaller and lighter, he could pull me out of there a lot faster than I could him.

"All right, all right." Dean said. I inched back toward the hole, he braced himself against the tree with his foot, wrapping the other end of the rope around it, and nodded. I started to propel down the hole.

"Don't drop me." I muttered. He laughed.

* * *

A half hour later we were back in the car, driving through the new development. I had a dead beetle in my hand, it was small, black, nothing remarkable. I poked at it, Dean looked over at me and shook his head.

"So you found some beetles. In a hole, in the ground. That's shocking, Beth."

"There were no tunnels, no tracks. No evidence of _any other _kind of creature down there." I said, giving a shudder. _I hate bugs. _"You know, some beetles do eat meat. It's usually _dead _meat, but..." I trailed off.

"How many did you find down there?" Dean asked.

"Ten." I answered. Dean shook his head sceptically, watching the road.

"It'd take a whole lot more than that to eat out some dude's brain." He said, glancing over a me. I grimaced and looked over at him.

"Well maybe there were more?" I said sarcastically.

"I don't know, it sounds like a stretch to me." He said.

"Well, we need more information on the area, the neighbourhood." I said, tossing the bug out the window. "We need to find out if something like this has ever happened before."

Dean's eyes cut to an A-frame sign on the side of the street. It was decorated with red balloons and advertising an open house.

"I know a good place to start." Dean said, slowing the car down. We passed another sign, this one advertising a free BBQ at the open house.

"I'm kinda hungry for a little barbecue, how about you?" He said. I smirked at him. "What we can't talk to the locals?" Dean asked, gesturing toward the house.

"Oh and the free food has nothing to do with it?" I laughed.

"Of course not. I'm a professional!" Dean said, pulling the car into the curb. I chuckled. He parked the car and we got out, starting to walk toward the open house, which was a few yards down from where we'd parked.

"Growin' up in a place like this would freak me out." Dean said suddenly, looking around at all the houses, they were almost identical in design, colouring... cookie cut.

"Why?" I asked curious.

"Well," He said, putting an arm around me. "Manicured lawns, 'How was your day, honey?' … I'd blow my brains out." He finished. I looked at him, realising just how different he'd had it growing up. I hadn't really had the ideal childhood, my Dad moved us from place to place every year after my mom died; I'd moved 7 times in as many years before he died. I'd never stopped moving since then, having joined John, Sam and Dean on the road because I had nowhere else to go. I kind of had a little idea of what stability was like, but I also knew the nomadic life Dean had grown up with too.

"There's nothing wrong with 'normal'" I said quietly, though I wasn't sure how any of us would survive such an idea.

Dean looked at me thoughtfully, then kissed me on the side of the head. "I'll take our family over normal any day." He said, inclining his head to the open house. We walked up the drive and knocked on the door.

The door was opened by a middle-aged man, greying hair and a fake tan.

"This the barbecue?" Dean asked.

"Yeah... not the best weather, but... I'm Larry Pike, the developer here." He extended his hand to Dean who shook it. "And you are...?"

"Dean. This is Beth." I smiled at the introduction and shook Larry's extended hand.

"Sam, Beth, good to meet you. So, you two are interested in Oasis Plains?" He asked, smiling at us.

"Yes, sir." Dean said, putting his arm around me again, tossing me one of his heart melting smiles.

"Great, great. Well, come on in." He said, stepping back and waving us into the house. He led us down a hallway to the back of the house, out into the yard. There were a lot of people milling about under the marquee that had been set up. A steady stream of conversation filled the yard, and Dean cast a gaze around for the food.

"You said you were the developer?" I asked, turning to Larry.

Larry nodded. "Eighteen months ago, I was walking this valley with my survey team. There was nothing here but scrub brush and squirrels. And you know what, we built such a nice place to live that I actually bought into it myself. This is our house." He gestured back to the house. "We're the first family in Oasis Plains."

He led us over to a woman who was dressed in a pretty pink cardigan, her blond hair softly falling around her shoulders. "This is my wife Joanie." She smiled at us as Larry introduced her.

"Hi there." She said, looking at us both kindly.

"Hi," Dean said, shaking her hand.

"This is Dean and Beth." Larry said.

"Pleasure, aren't you just the cutest couple." Joanie said smiling. I smiled at Dean who blushed and looked over at me.

"Tell them how much you love the place, honey. And lie if you have to because I need to sell some houses." Larry joked with his wife. We all shared a laugh at the comment. Larry excused himself and went to meet with some other prospective buyers.

"Don't let his salesman routine scare you. This really is a great place to live. It would be nice to have some young families in the neighbourhood too." She said, looking at us expectantly. Dean tensed at that comment, his arm stiffening around my body, I thought I might have detected his face going a slight shade whiter, and I chuckled, putting my arm around his waist.

"Well, all in good time." I said with a smile, and she nodded knowingly at me.

A thin, pale woman with black hair pulled tightly back in a bun approached us, introducing herself. "Hi, I'm Lynda Bloome, head of sales."

"Lynda was second to move in to the neighbourhood. She's a very noisy neighbour though." Joanie said with a smile and walked away. Lynda laughed.

"She's kidding, of course. I take it you two are interested in becoming homeowners?" She asked, looking at us both.

"Well..." Dean said.

"Y-yeah, well..." I stuttered. I'd momentarily lost my concentration, my mind going to a flash of what it would be like, to live here, with Dean... a _normal _life. I looked up at Lynda and just nodded, not sure what to say.

"Well, let me just say that it would be _wonderful _to have some young families move into the area." Dean chuckled and looked at me as if to say _what are you doing to me here?_ I shrugged.

"Right. Um... I'm gonna go talk to Larry. Okay honey?" He said, walking away and smacking me on the ass. I looked at Lynda, shrugging.

"Don't mind Dean... this is kind of a new, experience for him." I said by way of explanation.

"Not really the settling down type?" She said, casting an appreciative look at Dean's back as he walked over to Larry. I smiled at her.

"You have no idea."

* * *

Dean had gone inside with Larry, getting the tour no doubt. I had been listening to Lynda for the last ten minutes, nodding and commenting in all the right places as she fed me her sales pitch.

"Who can say 'no' to a steam shower? I use mine every day." She was saying, leaning against the bench in the barbecue area. I nodded.

"Sounds great." I murmured.

"You also have three different whirlpool tubs to choose from..." Lynda's voice faded a little as I noticed a new guest had arrived at the party. A tarantula was crawling along the table toward Lynda's back. My eyes caught those of a teenage boy watching with amusement.

I interrupted her, "You know what... I think Dean is going to want to hear this, can you excuse me while I get him?" I asked.

"Oh, ok." Lynda said, nodding. She wandered off, and I stepped up to scoop the spider into my hand, taking it over to the boy.

"This yours?" I asked, handing him his spider. He looked surprised that I'd been so willing to pick it up. I smirked.

"You gonna tell my dad?" He asked.

"I don't know. Who's your dad?" I asked of him, looking around.

"Yeah, Larry usually skips me in the family introductions." He scoffed.

"Ouch. First name basis with the old man – sounds pretty grim." I said.

"Well I'm not exactly brochure material." He said. I could see what he meant, a bit anti-social, greasy shaggy hair, attitude to boot. I felt sorry for the kid.

"Well, hang in there. It gets better, all right? I promise." I said smiling.

"When?" He asked looking at me. We were interrupted.

"Matthew." Larry's voice sounded behind us. We both turned to see Larry and Dean walking up to us, Larry was scowling at his son. "I am so sorry about my son and his... pet."

"It's no bother." I said with a shrug.

"Excuse us." Larry said, we nodded and he pulled his son away. I watched, Larry was having a giving the boy a heated lecture.

"Hmmmm. Kind of reminds me of someone." I said sadly.

Dean looked over at them, and then back at me. "Who Dad?" He asked. I nodded.

"Dad doesn't treat us like that." He said.

"Well, he never treats you and me like that. But Sam... he's kind of hard on him don't you think?"

"Well, maybe he had to raise his voice, but sometimes Sam was out of line." Dean said stubbornly.

"Hmmm, like when he said he'd rather play soccer than learn bow hunting?" I asked. I'd always been Sam's advocate with John and Dean, they were both a little hard on him. They went easy on me, for the most part, because I'm a girl, and because I was more like Dean than I cared to admit sometimes.

"Bow hunting is an important skill." Dean said seriously. I smiled, and leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek.

"I know it is." I said, I shook my head. Sometimes Dean just didn't get it, that was usually why Sam and he butted heads so much.

"How was your tour?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, it was excellent. I'm ready to buy. Start popping out babies for all your new female friends to coo over." I laughed and he gave me one of his trademark grins.

"So you might be on to something." He continued. "Looks like Dustin Burwash wasn't the first strange death around here."

"What happened?" I asked.

"About a year ago, before they broke ground, one of Larry's surveyors dropped dead while on the job. Got this severe allergic reaction to bee stings." He said. I grimaced.

"More bugs." I commented.

Dean nodded. "More bugs."

* * *

I was driving us through the neighbourhood, not really sure where to go next.

"You know, I've heard of killer bees, but killer beetles? What is it that could make different bugs attack?" Dean asked.

"Well, hauntings sometimes include bug manifestations." I said, thinking back to a couple of cases where we'd come across some really badly infested homes due to a spirit attached to the house.

"Yeah, but I didn't see any evidence of ghost activity." Dean countered.

"Yeah, me neither." I said, scrapping that idea.

"Maybe they're being controlled somehow. You know, by something or someone." Dean said.

"You mean, like _Willard?" _I asked, shuddering. I'd hated that movie.

"Yeah, bugs instead of rats." Dean said.

I considered this, looking out the window. "Well there are cases of psychic connections between people and animals – elementals, telepaths." I said.

"Yeah, that whole Timmy-Lassie thing." Dean trailed off, thinking. "Larry's kid – he's got bugs for pets."

"Who Matt?" I asked. Dean nodded. "Well he did try to scare Lynda with a tarantula." I agreed.

"You think he's our Willard?" Dean asked.

"Don't know. Anything is possible, I guess." I said with a shrug.

"Oooh, hey, pull over here." Dean said, I pulled the car into the empty driveway of one of the Oasis Plains display homes.

"What are we doing here?" I asked.

Dean got out of the car. "It's too late to talk to anybody else." He said, opening the garage door manually.

"We're gonna squat in a display house?" I asked, looking at him incredulously through the window.

Dean was nodding with his cheeky grin. "I want to try the steam shower. Come on." I hesitated. "Come on!" He said more forcefully, waving me in. I sighed and eased the Impala into the garage, Dean closed the door behind us.

* * *

I was looking around the room with a bit of concern. It was pristine and perfect. Crisp white linen on the bed, a floral picture on the wall. It felt kind of _wrong _to be here.

"You know, we'd be much more comfortable in a motel Dean." I said.

"Yeah, but they don't have steam showers." He grinned, pulling me into the bathroom with him.

"Oh yeah?" I asked, playfully. He shook his head, stripping off his jacket and t-shirt to bare his chest. He already had the shower running, steam starting to fill up the room.

"You coming in or not?" He asked with a smile and I allowed a little tug of a smile to come up to my mouth. His pants were next to hit the floor and he was standing there in all his birthday suit glory, I swallowed hard and raised an eyebrow.

He turned and got under the running water.

"Hey, can you pass me that towel?" He asked, and I turned to see several on the side of the tub, also in the bathroom. I walked over to hand him the towel and he opened the door with a laugh, pulling me into the shower with him, dressed and all.

"Dean!" I gasped. "What are you doing?" I asked, the water pelting down on me.

"Come on, don't be a stick in the mud, we're allowed to have a little fun." He chided, wrapping his arms around me. The water did feel good, even fully clothed. I raised face to the stream of water and let it rush over me. He chuckled, he knew he had me. I quickly divested myself of my wet pants and undies, tossing them out on the tiles – fortunately I'd already taken my shoes off. Dean tugged at my t-shirt, pulling it over my head with a familiar comfort. Last to go was the bra and Dean stood back to admire what he was seeing.

He was nuzzling my neck, the hot water felt amazing beating down on my back, I ran my hands along his firm, hot torso, and then got a cheeky thought. Sliding down on to my knees I looked up at him, he was staring down at me in surprise, but there was a hunger behind those hazel eyes, one we hadn't had a chance to fill much lately. I ran my hands teasingly along the backs of his thighs, my thumbs brushing along his the V where his abdominals met his pelvic area. The skin above his groin was soft and I licked it, he tasted of salty sweat and musk. He groaned in anticipation.

Smiling to myself I scooted in a little closer, looking up at him again before starting to nuzzle and lick my way to where he really wanted me to be, I intended to take my time and really draw this out. Dean groaned and I heard him mutter, "God I love this shower."

* * *

Dawn came, I was tangled up in a mess of sheets, completely naked and exhausted from the night's activities. I looked around at what had woken me, Dean was no where to be seen. The police scanner was next to me, and chatter came across the channel. There was talk about another dead body nearby and I pushed myself up, clamouring to get my clothes.

Dean had brought our bags in from the car, I had fresh jeans and V-neck knitted sweater to change into. I pulled a brush through my hair and tied it back in a ponytail. I could hear out of tune singing in the shower and realised that was where Dean had disappeared to.

I moved into the bathroom, but was careful to keep away from the shower this time, no need to repeat last night's episode with new clothes on.

"You ever coming out of there?" I called out, taking a toothbrush and brushing my teeth, spitting out the toothpaste.

"What?" Dean asked, wiping the steam away from the glass and looking at me.

"A police call came in on the scanner." I informed him, running some lipgloss over my lips.

"Hold on." Dean muttered, turning the water off and pulling a towel down from where it was draped over the shower stall.

"Someone was found dead three blocks from here. Come on." I prodded.

The shower door opened and Dean stepped out, towel wrapped around his head. I took this in with an amused look, tossing him another towel to dry off with.

"This shower is awesome!" He said smiling. I shook my head.

* * *

It was raining when we pulled up the car to the house. A body was being carried out on a gurney. Larry was talking to someone on his phone. Dean handed me an umbrella, and we both exited the car, walking up to Larry.

"Hello. You're, uh, back early." Larry said, looking at us, holding his own umbrella to keep the rain at bay.

"Yeah, we just drove in, wanted to take another look at the neighbourhood." Dean said.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"You both met, uh... Lynda Bloome at the barbecue?" He asked, glancing back at the body being loaded in to the medical examiner's vehicle.

"The realtor?" I asked. Larry nodded.

"Well, she uh... passed away last night." Larry said. I tried to keep the shock off my face, but was pretty sure that I failed.

"What happened?" Dean asked from beside me.

"I'm still trying to find out. Identified the body for the police. Look, I-I'm sorry, this isn't a good time now." Larry said, looking apologetically at us.

"It's ok." I said understandingly.

Larry excused himself and walked away. Dean looked at me, and I was already one step ahead of him.

"We gotta get in that house." I said. Dean nodded.

* * *

We waited for the majority of the people to disperse, and then when the last cop car pulled away, made our move. Dean led, climbing up on to the fence, and then across to the trellis that was attached to the side of the house. I followed, easily making the climb.

The window to the bedroom was unlocked, and we climbed in, almost stepping on the police outline of where the body had been found.

"This looks like the place." Dean said grimly. I nodded silently, looking around, moving further into the room. Dean picked up a towel from the bathroom, it was wet, shards of glass all over the floor. Taking a closer look he dropped it when he saw it was covered in dead spiders.

"Spiders? From Spider Boy?" He suggested.

"Matt?" I asked, thinking about it. "Maybe." I conceded.

* * *

We decided to confront the boy, and were waiting for him to get home from school. A school bus was pulling away from the curb, Matt having just disembarked from it. He started walking down the street toward the woods.

"Isn't his house that way?" Dean asked, pointing behind us in the opposite direction.

"Yup." I said.

"So where's he going?" Dean asked. We both looked at each other and then exited the car, hurrying to follow Matt who had headed down into the woods nearby.

We found him not far in, examining a stick insect which was perched on his hand.

"Hey Matt. Remember me?" I asked, walking up to him.

"What are you doin' out here?" He asked.

"Well, we want to talk to you," Dean said with half-smile.

"You're not here to buy a house, are you?" He said, looking at Dean. Dean shook his head. "W-wait. You're not serial killers?" He stepped back, looking a little worried. I snickered and Dean shook his head.

"No, no. No, I think you're safe." I said smiling. Matt was still handling the stick insect on his wrist, a specimen box in his other hand, as he worked on getting it to crawl in.

"So, Matt... you sure know a lot about insects." Dean said.

"So?" The boy quipped.

"Did you head about what happened to Lynda, the realtor?" Dean asked.

"I heard she died this morning." He answered, nodding.

"Mm, that's right. Spider bites." Dean said.

"Matt... you tried to scare her with a spider." I pointed out gently.

"Wait. You think I had something to do with that?" He asked, shocked.

"You tell us." Dean said.

"That tarantula was a joke... and actually I was trying to scare you," He said, looking at me. He looked at his shoes.

I shrugged. "Sorry." I said with a smile, he smiled back.

"Anyway, that wouldn't explain the bee attack, or the gas company guy." Matt said.

"You know about those?" I asked. He nodded.

"There is something going on here. I don't know what... but something's happening with the insects. Let me show you something." He picked up his backpack and started to lead us deeper into the woods.

"So if you knew all about this bug stuff, why not tell your dad? Maybe he could clear everybody out." I asked.

"Believe me, I've tried. But, uh, Larry doesn't listen to me." Matt said.

"Why not?" I asked, walking beside him.

"Mostly? He's too disappointed in his freak son." Matt said softly.

I patted him on the shoulder. "I understand." I was thinking about Sam, and John, and how they always butted heads.

"You do?" Dean asked, surprised. I gave him a look that said, _not me, _and turned back to Matt.

"Matt, how old are you?" I asked.

"Sixteen." Matt replied, glancing at me.

"Well, hang in there, because in two years, something great's going to happen for you." I smiled, encouragingly.

"What?" Matt asked.

"College. You'll be able to get out of that house and away from your dad."

"What kind of advice is that?" Dean asked angrily. "Kid should stick with his family."

I looked at Dean and sighed. Sometimes his stubbornness could be a real challenge to work through.

"How much further Matt?" I asked. Dean stared at me, not pleased.

"We're close." Matt said, gesturing to a spot ahead of us. We reached a large clearing and stopped to take a look around. Hundreds of different insects could be heard, all chirping together in some strange symphony.

"I've been keeping track of insect populations. It's, um, part of an AP science class." Matt explained. Dean scoffed.

"What's been happening?" I asked.

"A lot. I mean, from bees to earthworms, beetles... you name it. It's like they're congregating here." Matt said.

"Why?" Dean asked.

"I don't know." Matt said with a shrug.

"What's that?" I pointed to a dark patch of grass a few yards away. Dean shrugged and walked over to take a look. Hundreds of earthworms squirmed on the surface, Dean put his foot on them, pushing a little, and the ground suddenly gave way making a hole.

He took a stick and crouched down to poke around in the hole. He glanced back at me. "There's something down there." Putting the stick down, Dean reached into the hole, and felt around. He grasped something and with a sickening crunch, pulled it out. When he brought his hand back up, he was clutching a human skull in it, covered in dirt and worms. I stepped back with a shudder, _gross!_

* * *

**Department of Anthropology**

Dean was carrying the box of bones we'd dug up as we headed indoors to the Department of Anthropology.

"A bunch of skeletons in an unmarked grave." I thought out loud.

"Yeah. Maybe this is a haunting. Pissed off spirits? Some unfinished business?" Dean commented, thinking about the possibilities.

"Yeah, maybe. Question is, why bugs? And why now?" I asked.

"That's two questions." Dean quipped at me, moody. I chose to ignore him. We walked on in silence.

Dean looked at me, voicing what had obviously been on his mind since the woods. "So with that kid back there... why'd you tell him to just ditch his family like that?"

I chose my words carefully. "Dean, not every family situation is the same. I kind of know what he's going through, we've seen it with Sam."

"How about telling him to respect his old man, how's that for advice?" Dean said testily. I stopped walking and looked at him.

"Dean, come on. This isn't about his old man. This is about Sam, and John. You think Sam doesn't respect John, that's what this is about." I stepped a little closer.

"Just forget it, all right. Sorry I brought it up." Dean said, sighing.

"Hey." I said, putting a hand on his arm. "I get it Dean, I do. You know I'd do anything for John, he's my dad too. I'd follow him to the ends of the earth if he asked me . Sam's different though … he's always been different. He doesn't feel like he's good enough, no matter what he does."

"So what are you saying? That Dad is disappointed in Sam?" Dean queried.

"No. But Sam thinks he is, and that's what feels real to him." I said.

"Why would he think that?" Dean asked, confused.

"Because he wanted to go to school, live his life, which wasn't the same life that we are living, and John wanted him with us. He's different Dean."

Dean thought about it, nodding. He smiled. "Yeah, he kind of is like the blond chick in The Munsters." He chuckled. I smiled.

"Dean. You know most dads don't throw their kids out of the house when they score a full scholarship to _Stanford. _Most dads are proud." I said, quoting something Sam had said to me not long before he left.

"I remember that fight." Dean said. "And there were a few choice words coming out of his mouth too."

"Well what do you expect? They're like two peas in a pod. They're stubborn, independent, think they're always right, and don't take orders from people. You and me, we're different Dean, we're soldiers, we're happy to follow John's lead. Sam isn't, he beats to his own drum." I said.

Dean looked at me, considering what I'd said. "Dad isn't disappointed in Sam, Beth. He's scared."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, frowning.

"Well, why do you think this is the _first time ever _that we've been allowed to go on a job on our own? Because he thinks he has to protect us! He's afraid of what could happen to any of us, but especially Sam if he's not around. Think about it. There's no job up in San Jose, Beth, he's going up to swing by Stanford and check up on Sam. To keep an eye on him." Dean's realisation made me stop short.

John had been taking a lot of trips west lately.

"Well why doesn't he just _tell Sam _this?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Well, it's a two-way street darlin'. Sam could pick up the phone too you know." I sighed, and nodded. None of us had exactly been quick to do so lately.

"Come on." Dean said quietly. "We're gonna be late for our appointment." I nodded, mind full of thoughts now.

* * *

**College Classroom**

The Professor was carrying the box of bones under one arm, leaning heavily on his cane as he limped to the front of the classroom. He looked up at us, trying to place us but failing to do so.

"So, you two are students?" He asked, prompting for more information.

"Yeah. Yeah, we're in your class – Anthro 101?" I said.

He nodded, pretending to recall who we were. "Oh yeah." He said vaguely.

"So, what about the bones, Professor?" Dean asked.

"This is quite an interesting find you've made. I'd say they're 170 years old, give or take. The timeframe and the geography heavily suggest Native American." He said, turning the skull over in his hands.

"Were there any tribes or reservations on that land?" I asked.

"Not according to the historical record. But the, uh, relocation of native peoples was quite common at that time." He informed us.

"Right. Well, are there any local legends? Oral histories about the area?" I asked.

"Well... you know, there's a Euchee tribe in Sapulpa. It's about sixty miles from here. Someone out there might know the truth." The Professor told us.

Dean looked interested. "All right." He said, nodding.

* * *

**Diner  
****_Sapulpa_**

The man we'd asked for directions had told us to look for a man at the diner. So here we were. When we walked in, I spotted him almost immediately, or who I supposed was him. He was playing cards at a table.

We walked up and the man paused to look up at me.

"Are you Joe White Tree?" I asked. He nodded. "We'd like to ask you a few questions, if that's all right?" I continued.

"We're students from the university." Dean added.

"No, you're not." Joe said, looking at Dean. "You're lying." He said it so matter-of-factly that Dean seemed taken aback, it was rare to have someone call him out on a story.

"Well, truth is..." Dean started.

"You know who starts sentence with 'truth is'?" Joe asked. "Liars." He kept placing his cards down as he talked.

Dean looked at me, shrugging. I turned to Joe giving Dean a warning look.

"Have you heard of Oasis Plains? It's a housing development near the Atoka Valley." I asked.

Joe looked at Dean with a twinkle in his eye. "I like her. She's not a liar." Dean sighed, putting his hands in his pockets. "I know the area," Joe said, turning back to me.

"What can you tell us about the history there?" I asked.

"Why do you wanna know?" He asked, suspicious.

"Something... bad, is happening in Oasis Plains. We think it might have something to do with some old bones we found down there – Native American bones." I said. Joe looked troubled, pursing his lips and taking a breath.

Joe looked at me appraisingly, as if assessing what I had to say. He nodded, and leaned forward.

"I'll tell you what my grandfather told me, what his grandfather told him. Two hundred years ago, a band of my ancestors lived in that valley. One day, the American cavalry came to relocate them. They were resistant, the cavalry impatient. As my grandfather put it, on the night the moon and the sun share the sky as equals, the cavalry first raided our village. They murdered, raped. The next day, the cavalry came again, and the next, and the next. And on the sixth night, the cavalry came one last time. And by the time the sun rose, every man, woman, and child still in the village was dead. They say on the sixth night, as the chief of the village lay dying, he whispered to the heavens that no white man would ever tarnish his land again. Nature would rise up and protect the valley. And it would bring as many days of misery and death to the white man as the cavalry had brought upon his people."

"Insects." Dean said. "Sounds like nature to me. Six days."

"And on the night of the sixth day, none would survive." Joe finished his story, going back to his cards.

I looked at Dean, he was biting his lip. We had to get back to Oasis Plains.

We exited the diner. "When did the gas company man die?" I asked.

"Uh, let's see, we got here Tuesday, so, Friday the 20th." Dean answered, thinking it through.

"March 20th? That's the Spring Equinox." I said.

"The night when the sun and moon share the sky as equals." Dean quoted.

"So, every year about this time, anybody in Oasis Plains is in danger. Larry built this neighbourhood on cursed land." I said, nodding.

"And on the sixth night – that's tonight." Dean said.

"If we don't do something, Larry's family will be dead by sunrise." I said, eyes wide. "So how do we break the curse?" I asked.

"You don't break a curse." Dean said. "You get out of its way. We've gotta get those people out now."

Dean was driving and talking on the phone at the same time to Larry.

"Yes, Mr Pike, there's a mainline gas leak in your neighbourhood." He explained. There was a response on the other end. "Well, it's fairly extensive. I don't want to alarm you, but we need your family out of the vicinity for at least twelve hours or so, just to be safe."

More conversation, and Dean gave his 'cover' name. "Travis Weaver. I work for Oklahoma Gas and Power." More conversation and Dean paled a little bit, stumbling. Larry had figured out it wasn't Travis. Dean hung up, shrugging.

"Give me the phone." I said, taking it from his hand. I dialled Matt's number, which he'd given us earlier that day.

"Hello?" I heard on the other end of the phone.

"Matt, it's Beth." I said.

"Beth! My backyard is crawling with cockroaches." He started saying, sounding panicked.

"Matt, just listen. You have to get your family out of that house right now, ok?" I said.

Matt seemed to hesitate, "What? Why?"

"Because something's coming." I said.

"More bugs?" He asked, his voice sounded worried.

"Yeah, a _lot _more." I answered, glancing at Dean who was looking grim.

"My dad doesn't listen in the best of circumstances, what am I supposed to tell him?" Matt asked.

"You've gotta make him listen, ok?" I said, Dean was gesturing at me to hand him the phone, whispering urgently. _"Give me the phone!" _

He took the phone and threw me an impatient look. "Matt, under no circumstances are you to tell the truth, they'll just think you're nuts." Dean said. "Tell him you have a sharp pain in your right side, and you've gotta go to the hospital, ok?" He hung up and looked at me incredulously. "Make him listen? What are you thinking?" He said to me exasperated. I shrugged sheepishly.

* * *

We pulled up to the Pike residence, "Damn it, they're still here. Come on." Dean said, getting out of the car.

Larry saw us and came running out. "Get off my property before I call the cops!" Larry threatened.

"Mr Pike, listen." I said, holding my hands out to him.

"Dad, they're just trying to help!" Matt had come to the door, trying to get his dad to listen.

"Get in the house!" Larry yelled at the boy. Matt turned to us, looking apologetic.

"I'm sorry. I told him the truth." He said.

"We had a plan Matt, what happened to the plan?" Dean groaned.

"Look, it's 12am." I said. "These bugs, they're going to be here any minute now. You need to get your family and go, before it's too late."

"You mean before the biblical swarm?" Larry scoffed.

"Larry, what do you think really happened to that realtor, huh? And the gas company guy? You don't think something weird is going on here?" Dean asked.

"Look, I don't know who you are, but you're crazy. You come near my boy or my family again, and we're going to have a problem." Larry said.

"Well, I hate to be a downer, but we've got a problem right now." Dean stated.

"Dad, they're right, ok? We're in danger." Matt said.

"Matt, get inside! Now!" Larry ordered his son.

"No! Why won't you listen to me?!" Matt yelled back.

"Because this is crazy! It doesn't make any sense!" Larry said.

"Look, this land is cursed!" I said. "People have _died_ here. Now, are you going to really take that risk with your family?" I asked, looking at him like he was nuts.

"Wait," Dean said, putting a hand on my arm. Everyone fell silent. "You hear that?" He asked, looking at me. A very loud buzzing noise was getting louder, getting closer.  
"What the hell?" Larry muttered. The fluorescent bug light on the porch began to pop and sizzle, killing several bugs at a time.

"All right, it's time to go. Larry, get your wife." Dean ordered, starting to push me toward the Impala.

"Guys." Matt said, pointing. We all looked up and saw them at the same time. Millions of bugs, flying toward the house, blanketing the night sky.

"Oh my God." Larry uttered.

"We'll never make it." I realised, looking at Dean. He frowned.

"Everyone in the house! Everybody in the house, go!" He yelled, pushing Larry and Matt toward the door. We rushed inside and locked the door.

"OK. Is there anyone else in the neighbourhood?" I asked.

"No, it's just us." Larry answered. Joanie came into the foyer, looking at us all in surprise.

"Honey, what's happening? What's that noise?" She asked.

"Call 911," Larry said to her. I looked at him, what good was that going to do? Joanie looked at him. "Joanie!" Larry ordered. She nodded and moved to pick up the phone and dial.

"I need towels." Dean said, looking around.

"Uh, in the closet." Matt answered.

"OK, we have to lock this place up, come on – doors, windows, fireplace, everything, ok?" I said, he nodded and we headed upstairs. We secured all the windows that we could find, drawing the curtains. There was no seeing out, they were covered in bugs, black as night. I shuddered. The lights went out and we were plunged into darkness. Matt led me back down the stairs to hear Dean say that the bugs were blanketing the house. I nodded, confirming what I'd seen, we were trapped.

"So what do we do now?" Larry asked.

"We try to outlast it. Hopefully, the curse will end at sunrise." Dean said, looking at me worriedly. It was just a guess, we really had no idea.

"Hopefully?" Larry asked.

Dean went to the kitchen, looking through the cupboards. He came back with bug spray.

"Bug spray?" Joanie asked.

"Trust me." He nodded with a smile. There was a creaking noise around the fireplace and I looked over at it, frowning.

"What is that?" Matt asked.

"The flue." I answered, throwing Dean a look. It wasn't going to hold.

"All right, I think everybody needs to get upstairs." Dean said. Suddenly thousands of bugs swarmed into the living room, getting into our hair, clothes, mouths. Dean flicked a lighter and hit the bug spray, the room lit up with a spray of fire, burning the bugs. He backed us up toward the stairs, keeping the bugs at bay. "Everyone up stairs! Go, go, go!" He shouted.

Larry led us up into the attic, I waited for Dean to get in, the last of us and closed the door. Quiet. No bugs. I took a steadying breath, Dean's hand was on my arm, reassuring me that he was there.

* * *

We'd been in the attic for hours while the sound of the bugs beating against the house droned on around us. I glanced at my watch, surely it would start getting light soon. I was sitting next to Dean, head resting on his shoulder.

"Bet you wish we'd had some actual sleep last night..." I whispered in his ear. He chuckled and turned to kiss me.

"Well, if it had to be our last night on earth, the shower was worth it." He whispered back. I smiled. His eyes took on a serious look and he nodded to the Pikes who were huddled not far from us.

"We'll make it." He promised. I looked doubtful. "Hey, I can't die on our first job away, Dad would kill me!" He laughed. I sighed and put my head back on his shoulder, shaking my head at the irony of that statement.

"Yeah..." I muttered, grimacing.

I was starting to see little rays of sunlight through the cracks in the ceiling and sat forward. Dean saw it too.

"I thought it was supposed to end with dawn." Dean said, looking at me. I shrugged.

"In a lot of cultures, it's the sunrise that counts." I said, thinking. He sighed.

"So, we gotta wait until the sun is over the horizon?" He asked.

"Maybe?" I said, I wasn't sure.

A new sound came, and we looked around, sawdust began to fall from the ceiling. The buzzing that we'd been hearing from thousands of bees was getting louder.

"Oh God, what's that?" Joanie asked. Dean and I stood up and looked at where the sawdust was falling.

"Something's eating through the wood." Dean replied.

"Termites." Matt said.

Dean looked at me grimly. Our first job on our own and we were going to die, eaten alive by bugs of all things. I bit my lip.

"All right, everybody get back. Get back, get back, get back." Dean said. Larry, Joanie and Matt moved as far into the corner of the attic as they could. Dean looked at me and I shrugged, God knew how we were getting out of this one.

The bugs had chewed through the ceiling and it fell with a crash, they started to swarm around the room. Dean used the bug spray to burn at the bugs, but it was barely making a dent in the masses of bugs coming into the room. I saw a board against the wall of the attic and grabbed it, pushing it up to plug the hole, holding it in place. It wouldn't last. There were two more holes being eaten through the wood. We backed into the corner with the Pikes, desperately swatting at the bugs. Joanie was screaming and I fought to see Dean in the swarm of bees over us. There was nothing we could do, we just crouched in the corner, huddled against the onslaught.

Suddenly, light started to shine in through the holes in the ceiling. The bugs seemed to thin out, and leave through the ceiling. Dean grabbed me by the arm, and we stood, looking at each other with relief. We went to the hole and looked out. The sun had risen, and the bugs were retreating. We'd been right, we just had to last until sunrise. I slumped into Dean's welcome arms, breathing a sigh of relief.

* * *

Dean and I had gotten a motel room to clean up, I'd had to fight the urge not to just shave my whole head as he patiently picked at the dead bugs caught in my hair, I felt sick just thinking about it.

When we returned to the Pike residence a few hours later, there was a moving van out the front. Larry was placing some boxes in it as we pulled up.

"What, no good bye?" Dean asked, walking up to him.

"Good timing. Another hour and we'd have been gone." Larry said, walking up and shaking our hands.

"For good?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah. The development's been put on hold while the government investigates those bones you found. But I'm going to make damn sure no one lives here again." He said, looking around.

"You don't seem too upset about it." I said.

"Well, this has been the biggest financial disaster of my career, but..." He trailed off, looking at Matt who was carrying a box to the garbage. "Somehow, I really don't care." He added.

We all smiled, understanding what he was saying. Family first.

I walked over to Matt, and saw that he was throwing away all his insect collection.

"What's this?" I asked, pointing.

"I don't know. They kind of weird me out now." He answered. We both laughed.

"Yeah, I completely understand." I said. I went back to stand with Dean by the Impala, watching Larry and Matt talk to each other, they were happy, the whole experience having broken down their barriers.

I leaned against Dean, deep in thought. He looked over at me. "You ok?" He asked.

"I want to see Sam." I said softly.

"Yeah, me too." He said, putting his arm around me.

"Well, if we push hard we can be in Stanford tomorrow evening." He said, looking at me. I smiled.

"And we can all apologise, and within five minutes he and I will be at each other's throats." Dean said, raising an eyebrow.

I laughed. "Yeah, probably." We sat for a moment.

"Well, we don't have to talk to him." I said. "I just want to make sure he's ok." Dean nodded.

"OK." He said. "Let's hit the road then." I smiled.

* * *

**AUTHOR NOTES (Sorry about the length, I'm feeling chatty)**

* * *

_**Wow, finished by 11pm today! I hope that doesn't mean this is crap! :D Hope you all liked this little look into Dean and Beth's first job together. It was a pretty dull episode in my opinion, but at least allowed for a little back story, and look into how the family dynamic is too.**_

_**I know it's a bit of a buzz kill to have them sit in the attic for a few hours - but seriously, did no one catch that? You can't go from 12am to dawn in a matter of 15 minutes of bug attack - ESPECIALLY near an equinox... there was a serious inconsistency in the continuity of the story there.**_

* * *

_**I was re-reading some of the earlier chapters today and noticed a few errors, so I'm going to be editing tonight, and probably into tomorrow.**_

* * *

_**I must be in a mood where I like getting my heart broken today – because I started writing the final scene for **_**No Rest For The Wicked. **_**Gah! Heart breaking! No hell hounds, back I say, back! I mean seriously, how on earth would you deal with the fact that the love of your life is about to get dragged off to Hell by hounds? I'd feel like bawling my eyes out! Kind of reminds me of **_**Chapter 58 in ****Fair Maiden, Shining Knight**_**... ****sometimes you just need chocolate to get through.**_

* * *

_**I'm working on the story where John and Dean rescue Beth (after her father is killed) and how she ends up staying with them. Not sure how it's going to come in because it's just snippets in my head at the moment; whether it'll be flashbacks in an episode (nearly did it for this one, but it decided to go a different route) or whether it'll be a stand alone entry like **_**Stolen Moments, _remains to be seen_. **_**But it is coming if people are interested. I'm looking forward to the challenge of writing teenage (17yr old) angsty Dean LOL**_

* * *

_**Thanks again to everyone who takes the time to put in a review and encouragement - no matter how short or long, it brings a smile to my face to read them – doing my little happy dance ;)**_

* * *

_**Voiceless Angel – thanks for your feedback on seeing Dean's softer side. It's been tricky to write because you just don't see it much in the show, but it's definitely there. I'm glad someone thinks that I'm getting his 'voice' right, I don't want to make him all soppy, but he has that soft side there, under all that bravado. It was my goal to sort of show a side of him with Beth, that no one else ever sees, at least, that's what I'm trying to accomplish.**_

**_PS. I think you've captured the voice of Reagan from your story really really well. Yes, I thought she was about 18 (but very young/naive) too, so you've written it perfectly!_**

* * *

_**WeAsHuman – Naw, thanks for your comments, they make me smile and feel all good. Sexy Dean time is awesome - I'm glad you liked it, because I really loved writing that scene, I was trying so hard to get his 'voice' right. Dean and Cas are definitely my favourites, I don't think I'd watch it if they weren't in it! As for how I think the series should end: Good god that's a loaded question! I don't even want to think about it coming to an end. But I guess, at the end of the day I'm a sucker for a happy ending, how you'd accomplish that, is something that I suppose I'll get to one day, because if they make it a bad ending, I'll just have to rewrite - Beth style! haha **__**I can't really see where the writers are going to take the series, or how they'll end it yet.**_

_**Some of the articles/interviews I've read recently say they have plenty of storyline to continue into Season 11 at least (Jared himself is keen which means it must be good) either way I can just say MY GOD I hope they go on forever! Let's out do one of my other favourite seasons, **_**M*A*S*H**_** which went into 11 seasons, outlasting the actual length of the war it was portraying it was so popular! And let's not forget**_** X-files, _if they can out last the longest running paranormal series in history, then I think they'll be doing really well. _****Hey**_** if they have storyline, and Jensen, Misha & Jared are all there, I'll be right there along with them – all the way. I just hope they don't write in a really horrible heroine I won't like – I'd be crushed (I wasn't a huge fan of Jo, and just died when I thought they were going to write her in as a love interest for Dean... gah!) I did like Lisa, too bad she couldn't have become a hunter. But, I love my Beth so much :D – Wow, 'my Beth', that's a line from **_**Little Women**_**, ****one of my favourite old shows, never said that before. OK it's nearly 1am now and I'm totally off on a tangent. Love talking shop :) Hope you enjoyed the update, I'm actually feeling it's not my best work, but then I think that every time I publish! :(**_


	9. Home

**A/N Oooh, Beth has a secret. Find out what it is! **

* * *

**HOME**

* * *

**Motel Room**

Another day, another motel room. I slowed my jog to a brisk walk as I made my way along the lines of cars outside rooms. The place was packed, more so than we preferred but it had been the only place in town with a room available, and we'd taken it gratefully just to have a place to rest. I slipped the key into the door in front of the Impala, and stepped into the room. It was a typical motel room, two doubles, table and a couple of chairs, floral wall paper, floral curtains that didn't match one bit.

Dean was at the table in front of the computer, I walked over to glance at what he was doing before throwing open the curtains to let in some sunlight.

"What are you guys turning into vampires or something?" I asked ruefully. Dean blinked in the sudden light and looked at me.

"We had a light on." He gestured to one of the bedside lamps over near Sam that was doing very little to light up the room. Sam was sitting under it, scribbling on the motel stationery.

"Uh huh." I murmured non-committally. I walked over to open up a bottle of water from the bar fridge, gulping the cold fresh liquid in long swallows, allowing it to cool down my throat from the run I'd just finished. Dean paused to look at me, and then went back to his computer.

"All right. I've been cruisin' some websites. I think I found a few candidates for our next gig. A fishing trawler found off the coast of Cali –- its crew vanished. And, uh, we got some cattle mutilations in West Texas..." He looked up at Sam, who was still absorbed in his drawing. "Hey!" Sam looked up at him, seemingly startled out of his own thoughts.

"Am I boring you with this hunting evil stuff?" Dean asked.

"No. I'm listening. Keep going." Sam said, going back to his drawing. Dean looked at me again and I shrugged, the guy had been quiet lately, what could I say? I didn't know what was happening with him any more than Dean did.

"And, here, a Sacramento man shot himself in the head. Three times." Dean held up three fingers at this declaration and I chuckled, he was still looking at Sam. He waved his hand around trying to get his attention.

"Any of these things blowin' up your skirt, pal?" Dean asked. Sam ignored him, he was looking intently at his drawing again. I walked over and sat down next to Dean, grabbing one of Sam's bagels that had been discarded on the table and munching thoughtfully, glancing at the article on the laptop.

Sam finally spoke, "What. I've seen this." Cryptic.

"Seen what?" I asked around a bite of bagel. Sam got up from the bed and started to search through his duffel bag. Dean took a sip of coffee from the mug beside him, and frowned.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

Sam had John's journal out, and was flipping through some loose documents and photos. He held up a photo and then turned to us.

"I know where we have to go next." Sam declared.

"Where?" Dean asked.

"Back home – back to Kansas." Sam answered.

Dean grimaced, giving Sam an uncertain look. "OK. Random. Where'd that come from?" He asked a little uncomfortably.

Sam came over and showed Dean a photo of the boys with John and Mary when he was just a baby.

"All right, um, this photo was taken in front of our old house, right? The house where Mom died?" Sam asked, leaning on the table.

"Yeah." Dean said, regarding the photo.

"And it didn't burn down, right? I mean, not completely, they rebuilt it, right?" Sam asked, he sounded excited, maybe a little hyper-active.

"I guess so, yeah. What the hell are you talking about?" Dean looked confused.

"Okay, look, this is gonna sound crazy but….the people who live in our old house –- I think they might be in danger." Sam said, sitting down and looking at us both.

"Why would you think that?" I asked, leaning forward, looking at Dean who was just staring at his brother.

"Uh…it's just, um….look, just trust me on this, okay?" Sam said in an agitated manner, getting up and walking over to get his duffel bag and put it on the bed to start packing. Dean looked at me, eyes wide, and I shook my head, I didn't know what he was talking about either.

Dean stood up, photo still in his hand, and approached Sam. "Wait, whoa, whoa, trust you?" He asked.

"Yeah." Sam said, tossing some clothes in his bag.

"Come on, man, that's weak. You gotta give me a little bit more than that." Dean said, stepping closer to Sam.

"I can't really explain it is all." Sam said, still packing.

"Well tough!" Dean said loudly, throwing his arms out. "We're not going anywhere until you do!"

Sam stopped, looking back at Dean, and then me. He sighed. Dean shrugged at him, expecting an answer. I stood up and came around the table to sit on the end of the bed near Dean, waiting for Sam to explain this sudden urgency to go back to Kansas.

"I have these nightmares." Sam said, as if telling us something new. Dean nodded.

"We've noticed." I said to him, he looked down at me.

"And sometimes... they come true." He said looking down at his hands.

Dean paused, a stunned look on his face. "Come again?" He said.

Sam was shaking his head. "Look, Dean... I dreamt about Jessica's death –- for days before it happened." He confessed.

"Sam, people have weird dreams, man. I'm sure it's just a coincidence." Dean said, dropping down to sit next to me on the bed, still looking up at his brother.

"No, I dreamt about the blood dripping, her on the ceiling, the fire, everything, and I didn't do anything about it 'cause I didn't believe it. And now I'm dreaming about that tree, about our house, and about some woman inside screaming for help. I mean, that's where it all started, man, this has to mean something, right?" He was pacing, upset.

Dean looked unsure. "I don't know." He said quietly, looking down at the photo.

Sam sat down on the bed opposite and faced us. "What do you mean you don't know, Dean? This woman might be in danger. I mean, this might even be the thing that killed Mom and Jessica!" His voice was raised, he was breathing faster.

"All right, just slow down, would ya?" Dean exclaimed, standing up and starting to pace. "I mean, first you tell me that you've got the Shining? And then you tell me that I've gotta go back home? Especially when…." He looked at me, a sadness in his eyes, his bottom lip quivered a little, he was upset. He'd talked about this a little, during quiet moments.

"When what?" Sam asked, not understanding.

Dean was running his hand over his face, a haunted look in his eyes. "When he swore that he would never go back there, Sam." I said quietly, looking up at Dean who was nodding, unable to say it. He turned away from us, staring down at the photo in his hands.

Sam looked at me and then Dean. "Look, guys, we have to check this out. Just to make sure." He said softly.

Dean looked up then, his emotions now hidden securely behind a mask. "I know we do."

* * *

**Lawrence, Kansas  
_Winchester House_**

Dean pulled the Impala up across the road from their old house, shutting off the engine and pausing to take a deep breath. Sam was already out of the car, anxious, slamming the back door as he wandered across the road. Dean didn't move. I reached across from the passenger seat and put my hand on his arm, he looked down at it, silent.

"Are you going to be all right?" I asked gently.

He looked up and met my eyes. He sighed and looked over at the house again.

"Let me get back to you on that." He said quietly. I gave his arm a little reassuring squeeze and we both got out of the car, following behind Sam. He was already at the door, knocking. He looked a little taken aback when a woman opened the door, but he recovered quickly.

"Sorry to bother you, I'm Sam Winchester, and this is my brother Dean." He introduced them and Dean nodded. "We used to live here. You know, we were just driving by and we were wondering if we could come see the old place."

The woman looked at them both with a smile, taking in their appearance. "Winchester. Yeah, that's so funny. You know, I think I found some of your photos the other night." She said, shaking her head.

"You did?" Dean asked, reaching out beside me to take my fingers in his hand.

She looked at him and nodded. "Come on in." She said, stepping back to open the door and let us pass.

We followed her into the kitchen, Dean was looking around at the familiar surroundings, he hadn't let go of my hand and he pulled me along behind him. A little girl was at the table doing some homework. A toddler was in his playpen not far away, jumping up and down calling out for juice.

"I'm Jenny." The woman said. "That's Ritchie. He's kind of a juice junkie." She said, taking a sippy cup out of the refrigerator and handing it to the boy. "But hey, at least he won't get scurvy." She laughed.

She walked back to her daughter. "This is Sari. Sari, this is Sam, Dean and..." she trailed off, realising she didn't know my name.

"Beth." I said, smiling. She smiled back.

"They used to live here." Jenny explained to Sari.

"Hi." Sari smiled. Dean waved tentatively at her.

"Hey Sari." I said, smiling at her.

"So, you just moved in?" Dean asked, he had his hand resting lightly on my back, no one would have noticed in ordinary circumstances, but it showed me just how unsure he felt in the house.

"Yeah, from Wichita." Jenny answered.

"Do you have family here, or...?" I asked, looking around.

"No. I just, uh... needed a fresh start, that's all. So, new town, new job – I mean, as soon as I find one. New house." She answered, looking around.

"How you liking it so far?" Sam asked.

"Well, uh, all due respect to your childhood home – I mean, I'm sure you had lots of happy memories here." Dean smiled at me weakly. "But this place has its issues." She finished, putting some dishes in the sink.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Well, it's just getting old. Like the wiring, you know? We've got flickering lights almost hourly." She said.

"Oh, that's too bad. What else?" I asked.

"Um…sink's backed up, there's rats in the basement." She paused to look at us. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to complain."

Dean shook his head, smiling. "No. Have you seen them, the rats, or have you just heard scratching?"

"It's just the scratching, actually." Jenny said, thinking.

"Mom?" Sari asked. Jenny kneeled down next to the girl. Dean's hand wavered a little on my back and I glanced at him. He looked at Sam and they exchanged a knowing look. Something certainly did seem to be going on here.

"Ask them if it was here when they lived here." Sari said quietly to her mother.

"What, Sari?" I asked, looking at the girl.

"The thing in my closet." She said, looking up at me. I exchanged a look with the boys.

"Oh, no, baby, there was nothing in their closets." Jenny said, smiling. She turned to look at us. "Right?" She asked.

"Right. No, no, of course not." Sam said quickly.

"She had a nightmare the other night." Jenny explained. Sam nodded.

"I wasn't dreaming. It came into my bedroom –- and it was on fire." Sari said. Dean's hand bunched up in my shirt at the small of my back, he looked like he was going to be sick. Sam was looking around the house, jittery.

"Well..." I said, changing the subject. "I think we've taken up enough of your time. Thank you for allowing the boys to take another look around." I said to Jenny. "I know it means a lot to them."

She nodded, smiling, and showed us out.

"You hear that? A _figure _on fire." Sam said anxiously as we walked back to the Impala.

"And that woman, Jenny, that was the woman in your dreams?" I asked, looking at him. He nodded.

"Yeah. And you hear what she was talking about? Scratching, flickering lights, both signs of a malevolent spirit." Sam said, he was walking close to Dean, peering at him as if to gauge what the older brother was thinking. Dean was frowning, disturbed by what he'd heard.

"Yeah, well, I'm just freaked out that your weirdo visions are coming true!" He quipped, stepping into the street.

Sam looked panicked and chased after him. "Well, forget about that for a minute. The thing in the house, do you think it's the thing that killed Mom and Jessica?" He asked.

"I don't know!" Dean exclaimed, stopping at the Impala.

"Well, I mean, has it come back or has it been here the whole time?" Sam was getting excitable, jumping to all kinds of conclusions.

"Or maybe it's something else entirely, Sam, we don't know yet." I cautioned, he frowned.

"Well, those people are in danger, Beth. We have to get them out of the house." Sam said.

"And we will." I promised, although I didn't quite know how right then and there.

"No, I mean now." Sam said.

"And how you gonna do that, huh?" Dean put in, sighing. "You got a story that she's gonna believe?" His eyes were flashing, frustrated... worried.

Sam paused, realising that he was getting carried away on a tangent.

"Then what are we supposed to do?" He asked, looking at us both. I shared a look with Dean that told me he had no better idea than I did.

* * *

**Gas Station**

"We just gotta chill out, that's all." Dean was saying. "You know, if this was any other kind of job, what would we do?"

Sam sighed, and took a breath.

"We'd try to figure out what we were dealing with. We'd dig into the history of the house." Sam said calmly.

"Exactly, except this time, we already know what happened." I said, nodding.

"Yeah, but how much do we know? I mean, how much do you actually remember Dean?" Sam asked, looking questioningly at Dean.

"About that night, you mean?" Dean asked, looking thoughtful.

"Yeah." Sam confirmed.

Dean shrugged. "Not much. I remember the fire... the heat." He paused, closing his eyes – reliving the moment. "And then I carried you out the front door." He finished.

"You did?" Sam looked surprised.

"Yeah, what, you never knew that?" Dean asked.

Sam shook his head. "No," he answered softly. Dean looked thoughtful at that comment.

"And, well, you know Dad's story as well as I do. Mom was... was on the ceiling. And whatever put her there was long gone by the time Dad found her." Dean continued.

"And he never had a theory about what did it?" Sam asked.

"If he did, he kept it to himself. God knows we've asked him enough times." I said, running my hand down Dean's back in a comforting gesture.

"Ok. So if we're going to figure out out what's going on now, we have to figure out what happened back then. And see if it's the same thing." Sam said.

"Yeah. We'll talk to Dad's friends, neighbours, people who were there at the time." Dean said, nodding.

We all fell silent, lost in thought. Sam sighed.

"Does this feel like just another job to you?" He asked Dean. Dean said nothing but his back was tense beneath my hand. He took a deep breath.

"I'll be right back. I gotta go to the bathroom." He walked away and we watched him go.

I frowned. Sam looked at me.

"Is he ok?" He asked.

"Yeah, I don't really know." I said quietly. I was worried. Dean was frighteningly quiet, and I knew this was harder on him than he was letting on. It was not the same for Sam, he'd never experienced the trauma, he'd never watched his loved one die in front of him as a child. Maybe that's why it seemed easier for him, he could push through the anguish, the memories, the guilt – because it was fresh for him, in a way it was like he was feeding on Jess' death. Older trauma, that was a different thing, it fuelled you, but it haunted you at the same time, the older the trauma the harder it is to push through it.

"I'm... I'm just gonna go check on him." I said to Sam, starting to walk away. He nodded with a concerned look in his eye.

I rounded the corner of the gas station toward the bathroom and was surprised to find Dean just standing near the wall, he was on his cellphone.

"Dad? I know I've left you messages before. I don't even know if you get them." I heard him saying. He looked up at me as I came around the corner. I hesitated, he looked so troubled, I started to back away to give him some space, but he shook his head and waved me over. He cleared his throat and put an arm around my shoulder, still talking into the phone.

"I'm with Beth... and Sam. And we're in Lawrence. And there's something in our old house." He closed his eyes. "I don't know if it's the thing that killed Mom or not, but..." He paused, lip trembling. "I don't know what to do." I held my breath, biting my lower lip. Tears were welling in his eyes. "So, whatever you're doing, if you could get here. Please. We need your help, Dad." He hung up the phone, turning a tear-eyed gaze to me.

I wrapped my arms around him, and he leaned in to me, resting his chin on my head, taking a few deep breaths as he calmed himself down. We stood this way for a few minutes, not saying anything, there were no words for the quiet desperation each of us was feeling in John's absence.

Finally, he pulled away from me, throwing me a brave smile, I reached up and wiped at his eyes, brushing the tears away, resting my palm against the side of his face.

"Do you think he'll come?" I asked softly.

Dean's eyes clouded over with sadness. "I dunno." He whispered. I nodded.

He sighed, swiping at his nose with his sleeve and looking in the direction of the Impala. "So what do we do?" He asked, uncertain.

I took a breath, softly stroking my hand along his cheek.

"We work the job." I said quietly. "Just like we always do." He nodded.

"Don't do anything stupid, keep our heads on straight, work the job, and stay safe." Dean said, reciting the same thing John said to us every time we'd go out on our own to hunt. I nodded with a smile and the corner of his mouth tipped up into a half-smile, before falling serious again.

"I can't do this alone." He whispered.

"You'll never have to." I promised, looking him in the eyes. He nodded.

"OK. Let's go." He said, steeling himself, squaring his shoulders and sniffing back a tear. "Before Sammy gets the wrong idea here..." He grinned, pulling me with him back around the corner. I laughed. Somehow I think he'd rather Sam have the wrong idea, than know just how fragile his brother was right now.

* * *

**Guenther's Auto Repair**

"So you and John Winchester, you used to own this garage together?" Dean was talking to the older mechanic who was walking around cars in his repair shop, tinkering as they talked.

"Yeah, we used to, a long time ago. Matter of fact, it must be, uh…twenty years since John disappeared. So why the cops interested all of a sudden?" The owner was saying.

"Oh, we're re-opening some of our unsolved cases, and the Winchester disappearance is one of them." Dean explained.

"Oh, well, what do you wanna know about John?" He asked.

"Well, whatever you remember, you know, whatever sticks out in your mind." Dean said. I was hovering nearby but trying not to be too obvious, it didn't really take three cops for routine questioning. Thankfully, the owner wasn't too concerned about it.

"Well…he was a stubborn bastard, I remember that." The owner said with a laugh. I smiled, we knew only too well about that. "And, uh, whatever the game, he hated to lose, you know? It's that whole Marine thing." The boys were nodding, we knew about that too. "But, oh, he sure loved Mary. And he doted on those kids." This earned a look between Dean and Sam, I smiled sadly, sad for a John I'd never known.

"But that was before the fire?" Sam asked.

"That's right." The man said.

"Did he ever talk about that night?" Sam questioned.

"No, not at first. I think he was in shock." He answered Sam, thinking about it, rubbing his chin.

"Right. But eventually? What did he say about it?" Sam was pushing for answers the older man clearly wasn't keen to give.

"Oh, he wasn't thinking straight. He said something caused that fire." He said, uncomfortably.

"He ever say what did it?" Dean asked.

"Nothing did it. It was an accident – an electrical short in the ceiling or walls or something. I begged him to get some help, but..." His voice trailed off and he looked away sadly, thinking about his long lost friend.

"But what?" Dean asked.

"Oh, he just got worse and worse." He said.

"How?" Dean asked, frowning.

"Oh, he started reading these strange old books. He started going to see this palm reader in town." I looked up at this comment, that was something we'd never heard before.

"Palm reader?" Dean said, also curious. "Uh, do you have a name?"

The owner looked at him and scoffed. "No." He answered.

* * *

Sam was at the phone booth flipping through the local phone book.

"All right, so there are a few psychics and palm readers in town." Sam said. "There's someone named El Divino. There's, uh ..." He laughed. "There's the Mysterious Mister Fortinsky. Uh, Missouri Moseley..."

"Wait, wait. Missouri Moseley?" I asked, crossing over to him and looking at the phone book over his shoulder.

"Yeah." Sam said, looking up at me. "What?"

"That's a psychic?" Dean asked from behind us, catching the reference that I had.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I guess so." Sam said. Dean went to the back seat of the car and pulled out John's journal, I was nodding and joined him.

"In Dad's journal... here, look at this." He opened to the first page and spun it to show Sam. I'd seen it before, I'd read it a hundred times.

"I went to Missouri and I learned the truth." Sam said, reading aloud.

"I always thought he meant the state." I said, running my finger across the writing.

"Yeah, me too." Dean said. "But maybe it's not."

* * *

**Missouri's House**

We were sitting on the couch in the hallway of Missouri's house. She was escorting a man out of her living room. She was short, carrying a few extra pounds, with tight curly hair dark hair to match her soft skin.

"All right there. Don't you worry about a thing. Your wife is crazy about you." She said with a southern accent. The man thanked her and she closed the front door behind him, turning back to us. "Whew. Poor bastard. His woman is cold-bangin' the gardener." She said.

"Why didn't you tell him?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow.

"People don't come here for the truth. They come for good news." She stated, looking at us. The boys were staring at her, seemingly not sure where to start now we were here.

"Well?" She said, looking at us. "Sam, Beth, Dean... come on already, I don't got all day." I exchanged a surprised look with Sam and shrugged. She was walking into the next room. I got up and followed, the boys not far behind me. She led us through a beaded curtain and turned with a smile, giving us an appraising look. "Well, lemme look at ya." She laughed delighted. "My, you boys grew up handsome."

She looked at Dean, who was looking at her with a stony silence. "And you were one goofy-lookin' kid too." She said, Dean glared at her. I smiled. "Oh but he sure does love you." She said, looking at me. I blushed. "At least somethin' good came out of what happened to your poor daddy." She said to me, I felt tears come into my eyes and looked away. Dean frowned.

"Sam." She took his hand. "Oh honey... I'm sorry about your girlfriend." She said with deep sincerity. We all stared in shock. "And your father – he's missin'?" She asked. Sam looked over at us, Dean was staring at Missouri, mouth hanging open.

"How'd you know all that?" Sam asked.

"Well, you were just thinkin' it just now." She answered, matter-of-factly. Sam raised his eyebrow, surprised.

"Well, where is he? Is he ok?" Dean asked, interrupting.

"I don't know." Missouri answered, looking at us.

"Don't know? Well, you're supposed to be a psychic right?" Dean asked impatiently.

"Boy, you see me sawin' some bony tramp in half? You think I'm a magician? I may be able to read thoughts and sense energies in a room, but I can't just pull facts out of thin air." She chastised. "Sit, please." She gestured to the couch behind us. Sam smirked and Dean sank on to the couch, shaking his head.

I sat down in the middle of Dean and Sam. As we did Missouri looked at Dean. "Boy, you put your foot on my coffee table, I'm 'a whack you with a spoon!" She snapped. Dean looked shocked.

"I didn't do anything." He said, glancing at me.

"But you were thinkin' about it." She said. Sam chuckled. Dean looked appropriately reprimanded.

"Ok. So our dad – when did you first meet him?" Sam asked, leaning forward, leaning his forearms on his knees.

"He came for a reading. A few days after the fire. I just told him what was really out there in the dark. I guess you could say…I drew back the curtains for him." She said.

"What about the fire? Do you know about what killed our mom?" Dean asked, he'd been sitting back, his arm across the back of the couch in a pose that belied how wound up he really was, but he leaned forward as he asked the question.

"A little. Your daddy took me to your house. He was hopin' I could sense the echoes, the fingerprints of this thing." She answered, nodding.

"And could you?" Sam asked.

"I..." She shook her head hesitantly.

"What was it?" I asked.

"I don't know," she whispered. "Oh, but it was evil." She said.

We all sat quietly.

"So... you think somethin' is back in that house?" Missouri asked.

"Definitely." Sam said.

"I don't understand." She said, more to herself than us.

"What?" I asked.

"I haven't been back inside, but I've been keepin' an eye on the place, and it's been quiet. No sudden deaths, no freak accidents. Why is it actin' up now?" She said.

"I don't know. But Dad going missing, and Jessica dying, and now this house all happening at once – it just feels like something's starting." Sam replied.

"That's a comforting thought." Dean muttered, leaning back again, his arm brushing along my shoulders as he laid it across the back of the couch again.

* * *

**Winchester House**

We'd asked Missouri to come back to the house, well, she'd kind of invited herself along really. She was just as concerned about the recent flare-up of paranormal activity there as we were. I wasn't sure how we were going to explain her to Jenny, but we had to find a way.

Sam rapped on the door, and Jenny came to the door with Ritchie in her arms. She looked upset, Sam seemed to miss this.

"Sam, Dean... what are you doing here?" She asked of the boys.

"Hey Jenny. This is our friend Missouri." Sam introduced the woman and she smiled.

"If it's not too much trouble, we were hoping to show her the hold house. You know, for old time's sake." Dean said.

"You know, this isn't a good time." Jenny said, looking anxious. "I'm kind of busy." She started to close the door. Dean stepped forward, hand out.

"Listen, Jenny, it's import-" Missouri smacked him in the back of the head, interrupting him, I grimaced as he gingerly touched his skull, glaring at Missouri.

"Give the poor girl a break, can't you see she's upset?" Missouri said to Dean, who looked sheepish. "Forgive this boy, he means well, he's just not the sharpest tool in the shed, but hear me out." She said quickly to Jenny, Dean looked at her, his mouth hanging open.

"About what?" Jenny asked, looking unsure.

"About this house." Missouri said, stepping forward.

"What are you talking about?" Jenny asked, throwing her a suspicious look.

"I think you know what I'm talking about. You think there's something in this house, something that wants to hurt your family. Am I mistaken?" Missouri asked.

"Who are you?" Jenny asked.

"We're people who can help, who can stop this thing. But you're gonna have to trust us, just a little." Missouri said, inching forward. Jenny looked at each of us, unsure of what to do, and then relented, showing us into the house.

We were standing in the middle of Sari's bedroom.

"If there's a dark energy around here, this room should be the centre of it." Missouri said, looking around.

"Why?" Sam asked.

"This used to be your nursery, Sam. This is where it all happened." She replied. Sam glanced at the ceiling, conscious that this is where his mother had been pinned, where she had died. Dean was looking uncomfortable, glancing around. Missouri continued to look around the room, I stood by the door watching. Dean pulled the EMF reader out of his pocket and started moving it around the room, it was beeping frantically.

"That an EMF?" Missouri asked, looking amused.

"Yeah." Dean replied.

She scoffed. "Amateur." Dean glared her and nudged Sam, showing him the readings he was getting.

"I don't know if you boys should be disappointed or relieved, but this ain't the thing that took your mom." She said after a moment.

"Wait, are you sure?" Sam asked. She nodded. "How do you know?" He asked.

"It isn't the same energy I felt the last time I was here. It's somethin' different." She said, looking puzzled.

"What is it?" Dean asked.

"Not it." She replied, going to the closet and opening the door. "Them. There's more than one spirit in this place."

"What are they doing here?" Dean asked. Missouri looked in the closet, finding nothing, and then came back to face the boys.

"They're here because of what happened to your family. You see, all those years ago, real evil came to you. It walked this house. That kind of evil leaves wounds. And sometimes, wounds get infected." She said.

"I don't understand." Sam said.

"This place is a magnet for paranormal energy. It's attracted a poltergeist. A nasty one. And it won't rest until Jenny and her babies are dead." Missouri said.

I pushed myself away from the door and stepped into the room. "You said there was more than one spirit?" I asked.

"There is. I just can't quite make out the second one." Missouri informed us.

"Well, one thing's for damn sure –- nobody's dying in this house ever again." Dean declared forcefully. "So whatever is here, how do we stop it?"

* * *

**Missouri's House**

We were sitting around Missouri's dining table. She had placed a half a dozen glass jars with different herbs and roots on the table.

"So what is all this stuff anyway?" Dean asked, picking up some loose herb in his fingers and letting the grains run through his fingers back on to the table.

"Angelica Root, Van Van oil, crossroad dirt, a few other odds and ends." Missouri said, coming over to the table.

"Yeah? What are we supposed to do with it?" Dean asked.

"We're gonna put them inside the walls in the north, south, east, west corners on each floor of the house." Missouri informed us.

"We'll be punching holes in the dry wall. Jenny's gonna love that." Dean said, grimacing.

"She'll live." Missouri said with a sly look.

"And this'll destroy the spirits?" Sam asked.

"It should. It should purify the house completely." Missouri said. She looked at each of us.

"We'll each take a floor. But we work fast. Once the spirits realise what we're up to, things are gonna get bad." She said to us. Dean had put a fingertip of something to his tongue, tasting it, he made a face and shook his head. I chuckled. Missouri cast me a look while the boys fiddled with the herbs. "Help me out for a minute Beth?" She asked, I nodded and followed her.

Once out of earshot, she turned to me with a smile. "Honey, you got your work cut out for you with that one." She said, nodding her head in Dean's direction. I chuckled, nodding, curious where she was going with it. "But he's worth it. He's special." She said to me in all seriousness. "He's got a destiny that no one could hope to understand."

"What kind of a destiny?" I asked, curious. She shook her head.

"Destiny is like a shadow. If you stare at it too long, the sun changes and you find it gone. But he's gonna need your help to get through all this Beth." I looked back at Dean, he was adding the different herbs to the squares of material and making charms.

"He's barely keeping it together right now." Missouri said. I looked at her, she was concerned.

"I know." I said, looking down, my own concerned look hidden from sight.

"Just be there for him, he'll be ok." She said. I didn't know what to say. "When we get to the house, you go with him." She instructed, and I nodded my agreement.

"I'm so glad that your daddy, John," She clarified, "...got past his stubbornness for once, when he took you in, Beth. He doesn't know how important it was, for all of you. I think he's only just startin' to realise it now."

"What do you mean now?" I asked, suspicious, looking at her. She was hiding something.

"Oh nothin'. I'm just ramblin'. Let's see if those boys need any help with these charms." She chuckled, walking past me.

* * *

**Winchester House**

Jenny was uncomfortable, standing outside the house with the kids, looking at the four complete strangers she was about to leave alone in her house.

"Look, I'm not sure I'm comfortable leaving you guys here alone." She said, hitching Ritchie up on her hip.

"Just take your kids to the movies or somethin', and it'll be over by the time you get back." Missouri said. Jenny continued to look uncomfortable, but walked over to her car, putting the kids in. Missouri led us inside the house.

We all split up, I went with Dean, he didn't actually protest, which said something in and of itself. Moving quickly we punched holes in the different walls needed on the north, east and west sides of the house, there was only one to go. We went into the kitchen, Dean had a small axe in his hand and started to punch a hole in one of the walls, when I could, I put the charm into the wall. I heard a movement and turned just in time.

"Dean!" I yelled, tackling him to the ground as a knife hit the cabinet where he'd been standing. Dean reacted quickly, turning the kitchen table on it's side, pulling me behind it, there were sickening thuds as more knives hit it, some of the blades coming through. Too close for comfort.

"Go, go – get Sam!" Dean said, pushing me out the door of the kitchen and up the stairs. He turned for the basement where Missouri was. I ran up the stairs looking for Sam.

I ran into Jenny's bedroom and gasped. Sam was on the floor, the cord from a lamp wrapped tightly around his neck, he was choking, trying to get the cord off.

"Sam!" I yelled, rushing over to him, I tried to get the cord off, to loosen it, but it wouldn't budge. I pulled it hard, but it was so tight! I saw the charm on the floor next to Sam and I moved quickly. Letting go of the cord, I ran and kicked a hole in the drywall, no time to use an a hammer. I tossed the charm in and there was a blinding light that went through the house. I rushed back to Sam's side, pulling at the cord, it slackened and I could get it off now.

Sam lay gasping on the floor, I grabbed him into a hug, not quite believing how close he'd been to death. He clutched me back, gasping for breath. "Jesus Sam, don't scare me like that!" I said with a laugh, looking at him. He chuckled back at me.

* * *

We were downstairs again, standing in the trashed kitchen.

"You sure this is over?" Sam asked of Missouri.

"I'm sure. Why? Why do you ask?" She said.

"Never mind." Sam said, sighing. "It's nothing, I guess." He looked around uncertainly.

Jenny entered the house at that moment, calling out to us that she was home. She rounded the corner into the kitchen and looked around at the mess. "What happened?"

"Hi, sorry. Um, we'll pay for all this." Sam said, looking around. Dean threw him a look, incredulous.

"Don't you worry. Dean's gonna clean up this mess." Missouri said, and when he didn't move, she gave him a little shove. "Well, what are you waiting for, boy? Get the mop!" He looked at her, shaking his head and walked away. "And don't cuss at me!" She said to his back. He shook his head again, muttering under his breath. I smiled and went to go help him straighten things up.

It wasn't long and we had the kitchen tidied up, as best as it was going to get. Jenny wasn't going to need a new table, but if that was the worst of the damage, she was getting off lucky. We all headed out the door, Jenny waving good bye. Dean looked a little sad as he stared at the closed door on the porch. I put my arm around his and bumped up against him.

"You ok?" I asked. He looked at me with a half-smile.

"Yeah." He said, started to walk to the Impala.

It was a few hours later and we were still sitting in the Impala across the street. Dean was tossing about on the front seat, muttering to himself.

"Tell me again, what are we still doing here?" He asked Sam. The younger brother was sitting in the passenger seat, eyes glued to the house.

"I don't know. I just... I still have a bad feeling." Sam said.

"Why? Missouri did her whole Zelda Rubenstein thing, the house should be clean, it should be over." Dean said.

"Yeah, well, probably. But I just want to make sure, that's all." Sam said.

"Yeah well, problem is, I could be sleeping in a bed right now." Dean grumbled, sliding down in his seat again and closing his eyes, arms crossed over his chest.

Sam startled next to Dean, leaning forward suddenly.

"Dean. Look, Dean!" Sam said. We looked up, Jenny was in the bedroom window, bashing at the glass, and screaming. We were out of the car in a heartbeat, racing to the house.

"You both grab the kids, I'll get Jenny!" Dean ordered us, as we rushed up the stairs.

Dean ran down the hallway to Jenny's room and started banging on the door, calling out to her. Sam was in the nursery getting Ritchie, I turned to Sari's door and heard her start screaming for help. Sam appeared near me with Ritchie as I opened the door. A fiery figure was in the room, blindingly bright, and advancing on the small girl who was in her bed. I looked at Sam, nodded and then ran into the room.

I grabbed her, pulling her out of the bed, picking her up and carrying her toward the door. "Don't look, don't look!" I said, cradling her head against my shoulder. I met Sam at the door and we ran down the stairs together with the kids toward the door. Suddenly Sam fell to the floor, dropping the baby.

"Sam!" I yelled, spinning around. He was being pulled back into the house by an invisible force. I put Sari down, who was screaming, and picked up Ritchie, grabbing the girl's hand and running for the door. As we crossed the threshold I saw Dean and Jenny waiting for us.

"Dean!" I called out, he was already running toward us.

"Where's Sam?" He asked, grabbing me.

"He's... something got him!" I said, handing Ritchie to Jenny and starting back toward the house with Dean. The door slammed shut in our faces, and I tried the handle. It wouldn't budge. Dean was running for the Impala, opening the trunk. I saw him grab an axe and a rifle and he ran back, throwing me the rifle. He tried kicking the door, but it didn't budge so he then started swinging at the door, chopping down parts of it.

Dean was strong, and determined. He'd chopped a hole big enough for us to squeeze through right in the middle of the door in a matter of minutes. We ran through the house, calling out for Sam. He was pinned to a wall in the living room. The fiery apparition from earlier was advancing on him. I raised the rifle to shoot and Sam called out.

"No, don't! Don't!" I hesitated.

"What? Why?" Dean said.

"Because I know who it is. I can see her now." Sam said. Suddenly the room fell quiet, the fire vanished and standing in front of us was Mary Winchester. I lowered the gun in shock. Dean was frozen in place, staring at her.

"Mom?" Dean whispered softly, his eyes welling with tears as she stepped closer to him, she put a hand up to his face with a smile.

"Dean." She said, and then dropped her hand, moving past him. She looked over at me with a smile, nodding, I was flabbergasted. She walked toward Sam, who was still pinned to the wall by some unseen force. Dean turned to watch her, his mouth open, eyes watery, he was in shock.

"Sam." She said, looking up at her baby, a grown man before her now. Sam smiled weakly at her, gasping, tears falling from his eyes. He'd never seen her before, but she was here now in front of him. "I'm sorry." She said suddenly.

"For what?" Sam asked, confused. She looked at him sadly, saying nothing. She backed away from us all, and then looked up at the ceiling, an angry look crossing her face.

"You, get out of my house. And let go of my son!" She ordered the other entity in the building. Once again she burst into flames, completely engulfed by them, the fire extending up to the ceiling, and then she was gone.

Sam slid down the wall, released by whatever had been holding him. He walked over to us, I was patting him down, checking for injuries. Dean looked around frantically, searching for his mother. But she was gone.

"Now it's over." Sam said.

* * *

_**The next morning**_

Jenny had brought the old photos from the attic out to the car, they were sitting in a box on the back seat, Dean was flipping through a stack. I was sitting with Sam on the porch, a comfortable silence surrounding us.

"Well," Missouri said from behind us, coming down the steps. "There are no spirits in there anymore, this time for sure."

"Not even my mom?" Sam asked.

"No," Missouri said, sadly.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Mary's spirit and the poltergeist's energy, they cancelled each other out." She said, looking at Sam. "Your mom destroyed herself goin' after the thing."

"Why would she do that?" Sam asked.

"Well, to protect her boys, of course." She said. Sam nodded, tears in his eyes. Missouri reached out to Sam, but stopped herself short of touching him.

"Sam, I'm sorry." She said.

"For what?" Sam asked.

"You sensed it was here, didn't you? Even when I couldn't?" She asked.

"What's happening to me?" Sam asked.

"I know I should have all the answers, but I don't know." Missouri said. Sam looked at me and I shrugged.

"You guys ready?" Dean called out. Sam nodded and we started for the car. Jenny thanked us all as we were leaving.

"Don't y'all be strangers!" Missouri called out.

"We won't." Dean said, waving.

* * *

_**Later that day... **_

We'd stopped for lunch, Dean was starving, realising he hadn't eaten in something like 24 hours. There was something niggling in the back of my mind about what Missouri had said the day before, when she'd talked about John. I chewed on it, like I did my food, silent and frustrated.

"What's up with you?" Dean asked, chewing on a piece of burger. I glanced up at him, frowning, trying to put into words what I was thinking.

"There's something Missouri said to me yesterday... I just can't put my finger on it." I said.

"Oh yeah? What'd she say?" He asked.

"A few things, most of it didn't make any sense," I said. I thought about it and shrugged.

"I'd like to stop by her place on the way out of town and clarify something with her though." I said nonchalantly, trying not to make a big deal out of it.

"Yeah, ok. Sure." Dean said, shrugging and taking a swig of his coke.

An hour later I was walking down the street to Missouri's while the boys went to the gas station to fill up. I hesitated at the steps, but then went up to the door. It was slightly ajar, and I pushed it softly, stepping into the foyer.

I could hear Missouri talking to someone inside the beaded curtain, I turned to leave, not wanting to interrupt, but then I heard his voice.

"Mary's spirit – do you really think she saved the boys?" He asked. I froze. I'd know that voice anywhere.

"I do." Missouri said. There was a pause, then Missouri spoke again. "John Winchester, I could just slap you. Why won't you go talk to your children?" She asked as I crept quietly down the hallway.

"I want to..." John said. "You have no idea how much I want to see them. But I can't. Not yet. Not until I know the truth."

"Well..." Missouri said. "You might not get a choice on that one." She said suddenly. "Come in Beth!" She called out.

I froze, not sure what to do. There was movement and John appeared around the corner, looking at me sternly. He hadn't changed much, just the beard, which now covered his face. I stood, staring at him, shocked. All this time and here he was.

"Hey Beth." He said softly. I blinked, starting to say something, but couldn't think of the words. I closed my mouth, tears welling up in my eyes.

I crossed the room to him in a second, grabbing him in a hug which he returned warmly. The tears fell freely from my eyes and I struggled to stifle a couple of sobs. My heart suddenly ached at how much fear I'd been holding for him, how much desperation.

I pulled back. "You've been here all along. Why didn't you tell us." I asked, looking at him, angry.

He smiled at me sadly. "I couldn't Beth, not yet."

"Not yet! What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked, running a hand through my hair, looking at him. "_All these months _we've been looking for you, all those phone calls, and you never once..." I trailed off, looking at him, tears running down my cheeks. "Do you know how worried Dean is? How worried we _all are_?"

"I'm sorry Beth. I am. I'm sorry I have to do this to you three. But it's not safe." He said, reaching out and grabbing me by the shoulders.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I'm on to something, something I can't tell you yet, for your own safety. You have to _trust me _Beth. You can't tell Dean I'm here. You can't tell anyone."

"No..." I said softly, shaking my head. "No you can't ask me to do that."

"Yes, I can. And I am." I shook my head again. _No. _

"Beth. _I am your father, and you will obey me." _I looked at him, torn between my duty to him and my love for Dean. "I'm giving you an order Beth. You won't speak a word of this to Dean or Sam."

I stared at him, fighting back my tears, struggling with what I had just been told. I sighed, closing my eyes, resigned. I swallowed hard, and looked up at him. "Yes, sir." I said quietly.

John regarded me for a moment, and then nodded, letting me go. "Good." He said.

"So what do I do?" I asked of him, suddenly not sure what was wanted of me.

He turned, and looked at me. "Go back to Dean, and Sam. You keep your head down, don't do anything stupid, and you stick to the job. I'll let you know where I need you, when I need you. But you don't breathe a word of this to either of them, not until I'm sure it's safe."

"Yes, sir." I said, taking a steadying breath. His look softened when he looked at me.

He suddenly crossed and pulled me into another hug. "I'm sorry Beth, I don't mean to be harsh, but you know your job, you know I wouldn't ask anything like this of you if it wasn't important." He was looking in my eyes now, asking for me to understand.

"I know." I said, looking down. I'd known when I left with them that it was John's rules, and John's rules kept us alive. "How long am I going to have to pretend to them?" I asked. He sighed.

"I don't know. Not long, I hope." He replied. I nodded.

"God it's good to see you." He smiled at me, cupping my face with his hand. "I'm so proud of all of you." He said and a fresh tear slid from my eye.

I sniffed and nodded. "We miss you. We need you Dad, we need you with us."

"You don't, not anymore." He said sadly. I shook my head, disagreeing.

"Ok. You better go before they come in looking for you." John said, kissing my forehead.

I stopped for a moment. Ever since Jericho I'd been carrying them around with me, waiting for this moment. I pulled the rosary I'd tucked in my pocket out and put it in John's hands, closing his fingers over it. His eyes widened and he looked at me. "You forgot this..." I said. "In Jericho." His eyes watered for a moment, and he blinked the tears away, looking down at the rosary before taking it and putting it around his neck.

"I love you Beth, you stay safe, and you keep those boys out of trouble." He said, looking at me.

I nodded. "I will." I whispered. Missouri took me by the arm, throwing me a sympathetic look, guiding me down the hallway back to the door. I allowed myself to be pulled along, dragging my feet, shocked. I looked over my shoulder, and John stood there, hand in the air, waving at me, a sad smile tugging at his mouth.

Missouri pulled me out the door into the sunshine. Dean and Sam were there waiting in the Impala. I choked back a sob when I saw them, smiling at me.

"It'll be ok Beth." Missouri said to me, giving me a quick hug. "You'll see. Remember what I said about destiny?" I nodded. "You've all got one, they're all a little hazy to see, nothin' is written in stone. You just keep puttin' one foot in front of the other, it'll work out just fine." She promised. I had a moment to wonder if she was telling me the truth, or just giving me a bit of good news, like one of her other clients, before Dean called out to me.

"You coming, or you joining the psychic ranks?" He grinned.

I smiled warmly at him. Missouri nodded at me and I left her, sliding into the back seat of the Impala behind my brothers – the only men in the world I trusted. And they trusted me. But now I had to keep a secret from them, and it tore at me inside.

"You find what you were looking for?" Dean asked, looking in the rearview mirror at me.

"No..." I answered. "But I did find something else." I said quietly. He raised an eyebrow. I smiled. "I'll tell you another time." I promised.

He shrugged, starting up the car. "Well ok then, let's get this show on the road!" As he pulled away from the curb, I saw a curtain move, John was there, watching us leave – I sighed, pulling Dean's jacket from the seat next to me up over my chest, tucking it under my chin, breathing in his scent. I'd never had to lie to him before, never needed to. But orders were orders, and I was a good little soldier girl, I would do my duty, whether I liked it or not.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

* * *

_**My monitor died last night – woe! You know it's sad when you're down at the electronics store at 9am waiting for them to open up because you really just want to check your FanFiction alerts and get stuck into the next story! **_

* * *

_**To answer a question asked earlier – my favourite episode from the series is probably **_**Yellow Fever, ****_followed closely by _****Bad Day at Black Rock, ****_and _****Clap Your Hands If You Believe. ****_As you can probably see, I like the funny episodes :) Feel free to share your favourites!_**

* * *

_**I have soooo many plot twists and ideas running around in my head, especially for later seasons. Today I got the idea for when Beth meets Lisa – lol – oh I might work on that tonight since I'm done with this update early. I'd forgotten that Dean deliberately went looking for Lisa when they hit the town she was in. Well, he can't very well do that now he's with Beth can he? But, they will run into each other, and Beth plays a key role in that. Let's make Dean a little uncomfortable, hey? ;) **_

* * *

_**Still working on the rescue story for Beth, and a few other things. Hope you enjoyed this update – especially the moment with John. I've been wanting an opportunity to explore the relationship dynamic between these two a little more :) I think this little snippet, hopefully, tells a lot about how important all the Winchesters, not just Dean, are in her life.**_

* * *

_**As always - thank you for the reviews :) It puts a smile on my dial, and makes me want to keep going with this :D **_

* * *

_**EDITED 30 October 2013 to respond to this GUEST review:**_

:I love dean and beth's relationship but am very disappointed in the story,  
every romance with a oc character or sister story is the same, follow the  
episodes and add the character in nothing original at all such a shame cause  
some of your in between storys are original which means your capable of  
writing one you just choose not to  


Firstly thank you for taking the time to post a review and offer your opinion, I very much appreciate it. I am a little disappointed that you would post it as a guest so that I can't actually respond to you, so I'm hoping you haven't become disillusioned by the series yet, and will get to actually see this :)

My response basically would have been - you're responding to Chapter 6 - don't give up on it yet! There is a lot more to come and it does get better, I was still finding my way with the series at this stage. Lots of more original stuff to come, and a unique storyline that is building around Beth but which I'm not about to give up all in one Season :)

Anyway, in future, please please don't do the chicken guest review, at least allow me to respond to you and encourage you to keep reading :) If you get to the end of Season 1 and still feel the same way then fine, don't read anymore - but most of my readers have actually said the very opposite so I think I'm doing something right, it just took me a while to get into it. Also, I never said I was writing an entirely new series, this does follow the Show, with a few twists added in, and there is more and more "new and original" stuff added, particularly as we get into Season 2 and 3 :)

Thank you for the review, hope you stick with it and start to enjoy it more.


	10. Scarecrow

_'Cause I don't wanna lose you now__**  
**__I'm lookin' right at the other half of me__**  
**__The vacancy that sat in my heart__**  
**__Is a space that now you hold__**  
**__Show me how to fight for now__**  
**__And I'll tell you, baby, it was easy__**  
**__Comin' back here to you once I figured it out__**  
**__You were right here all along  
__It's like you're my mirror  
My mirror staring back at me_

* * *

**SCARECROW**

* * *

**Motel Room - ****_Bathroom_**

It was late at night, I couldn't sleep so decided to take a shower. A good seven weeks had passed since Lawrence and we found ourselves four states away, somehow I'd managed to not even blink when Sam wanted to renew the search for John. I didn't know where to start anyway. John had sent me coordinates a few times for jobs, and the boys hadn't really questioned me when I happened to "find" a job worth pursuing.

I let the hot water from the shower run down my back, groaning a little. I was feeling _a lot _better since New Orleans, but still very tired. I started to wonder if perhaps I wasn't coming down with something. I was startled out of my thoughts when I heard my phone ringing. _Shit. _I got out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my hair, and one around my body, going for the door. I wasn't fast enough.

Sam was sitting on the edge of his bed, having grabbed my phone.

"Hello?" He said. I held my breath. There was a pause as he listened to someone on the other end.

"Dad? Are you hurt?" Sam asked, and I closed my eyes. _Shit. Shit. _

"We've been looking for you everywhere. We didn't know where you were, if you were ok." Sam was saying. John was talking to him so I quickly towelled off just inside the bathroom door, still listening, before shrugging into some shorts and a t-shirt.

Dean was stirring at the talking, he looked up as I walked into the room, glancing at Sam.

"We're fine. Dad, where are you?" Sam said. Dean sat up quickly, alert in an instant.

"What? Why not?" Sam asked frustrated.

"Is that Dad?" Dean asked, looking up at me. I shrugged at him, pretending I had no idea.

"You're after it, aren't you? The thing that killed Mom..." Sam said softly. A pause as John replied on the other end.

"A demon? You know for sure?" Sam asked, I looked at him sharply. This was the first time John had said anything more on the matter. Dean was sitting up in bed.

"A demon? What's he saying?" Dean asked, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and pulling a t-shirt over his head. John was talking, Sam looked upset.

"You know where it is?" Sam asked – he glanced up at Dean, frowning. Another pause.

"Let us help." Sam said. Dean was staring at his brother, I noticed his breathing was faster than usual.

"Why not?" Sam asked.

"Give me the phone." Dean said gently to Sam, holding out his hand. Sam shook his head.

More silence, I walked around the room, arms wrapped across my stomach, breath caught in my throat. I didn't have to fake it, I was shocked at all this new information coming out.

"Names? What names, Dad – talk to me, tell me what's going on." Sam was saying, and Dean's eyes widened, trying to understand the one-sided conversation. I was reaching for the motel stationery on the table and a pen as soon as I heard Sam mention names.

"No. Alright? No way!" Sam said to John, argumentative to the last.

"Give me the phone!" Dean said forcefully, reaching out a hand to Sam.

Sam ignored him, listening to John but shaking his head defiantly, struggling with whatever was being said.

"Give me the phone!" Dean said angrily, he reached over, taking the phone out Sam's hand with a concerned look.

"Dad, it's me. Where are you?" Dean asked into the phone. He paused for a moment, his eyes widening as he listened to John on the other end. Then he sighed. "Yes, sir."

He saw me with the pen and paper, waving me over to take them from me. "Uh, yeah, I got a pen right here. What are their names?" He said. He started scrawling some names down and I watched impassively. Dean was listening to John, his eyes frustrated.

"OK." Dean said. "Yeah. Yes sir." He looked at me, the same resignation I knew I'd had in my eyes two months ago when John had given me an order. I smiled at him sadly, letting him know I understood. He hung up the phone.

"What'd he want?" I asked.

"He's given us a job." Dean replied, looking at Sam with a sigh. Sam was fuming, pacing around the room.

* * *

**Impala**

Sam was driving, Dean was riding shotgun, going through different articles and maps.

"All right," I said, leaning forward. "So the names Dad gave us, they're all couples?" I asked.

"Three different couples." Dean answered, nodding. "All went missing."

"And they're from different towns? Different states?" I asked, looking at the information he had in his lap.

I glanced at Sam, he was stony silent, eyes on the road ahead.

"That's right. You got Washington, New York, Colorado... each couple took a road trip cross country. None of them arrived at their destination, and none of them were ever heard from again." Dean said, looking back at me.

"Well, it's a big country, Dean. They could've disappeared anywhere." Sam said coldly.

"Yeah, could've. But each one's route took them to the same part of Indiana. Always on the second week of April. One year after another after another." He said, his brow creasing as he regarded his brother.

I thought about it. "This is the second week of April." I said.

"Yep." Dean nodded.

"So, Dad is sending us to Indiana to go hunting for something before another couple vanishes?" Sam said, shaking his head.

"Yahtzee! Can you imagine putting together a pattern like this?" Dean looked impressed, his eyes running over all the intricate details he'd plotted on the map and the articles. "All the different obits Dad had to go through? The man's a master!"

Sam looked annoyed and pulled the car over to the side of the road.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked, looking up as we stopped.

"We're not going to Indiana." Sam said.

"We're not?" Dean asked.

"No. We're going to California. Dad called from a payphone. Sacramento area code." Sam said, looking at Dean.

"Sam..." I cautioned, biting my lower lip.

"No, Beth... Dean, if this demon killed Mom and Jess, and Dad's closing in, we've gotta be there. We've gotta help." Sam said vehemently, he was determined, you could see it in his eyes, the same old rebellious Sammy coming to the surface.

"Dad doesn't want our help." Dean said.

"I don't care." Sam said, stubbornly.

"He's given us an order." I said quietly. Dean nodded.

"That's right." He agreed with me.

"_I don't care." _Sam said firmly, shaking his head. "We don't always have to do what he says." I flinched, looking down at my hands.

"Sam," Dean tried to reason. "Dad is asking us to work jobs, to save lives, it's important."

"All right, I understand, believe me, I understand. But I'm talking one week here, man, to get answers. To get revenge." He said, pleading with Dean.

Dean sighed, glancing at me, then looking back at Sam. "Look, I know how you feel..."

"Do you?" Sam interrupted with an angry tone. Dean looked at him, eyes wide. "How old were you when Mom died? Four? Jess died _nine months ago_! How the hell would you know how I feel?" He said.

"Dad said it wasn't safe." I interjected, laying a hand on Sam's shoulder. "For any of us. He obviously knows something that we don't, so if he says to stay away, we should."

Sam shrugged my hand off his shoulder, turning to regard me.

"I don't understand the blind faith you have in the man. I mean, it's like both of you don't even question him!" He said, eyes flashing defiantly.

"Yeah, it's called being a good son!" Dean said, glaring at Sam. Sam got out of the car, angry. Dean followed him and I turned, seeing Sam unloading things from the trunk, his duffel bag, backpack... I got out of the car too.

"You're a selfish bastard, you know that?" Dean was saying. "You just do whatever you want. Don't care what anybody thinks."

Sam slammed the trunk shut and looked at his brother. "That's what you really think?"

"Yes it is." Dean said, pausing.

"Well, then this _selfish bastard _is going to California." He put his backpack on and started walking away.

I looked anxiously between the two of them, starting to follow Sam.

"Sam, come on, you can't be serious." I said calling out to him.

"I am serious." Sam said turning to look at me. I stared at him sadly and his eyes softened a little, but then he took a breath and shook his head.

"Look, you want to do the good little girl thing with Dean, that's fine Beth. But I'm not following along just because they're orders." He said turning and walking away from us.

"It's the middle of the night!" Dean said loudly, throwing his hands in the air. "Beth, get in the car, get in the car. Sam, I'm taking off, I _will leave your ass, _you hear me?"

Sam stopped again and looked back, I felt slightly panicked, my breath catching in my throat. "That's what I want you to do." He said, staring at Dean. Dean stared back at him. I didn't move, and suddenly Dean was pulling me back to the car, gently, but firmly.

"Good bye Sam." Dean said, opening the passenger door and pushing me toward it. I numbly got in the car and he shut the door behind me, coming around and getting into the driver's seat.

"Dean, what are we doing, we can't just leave him here." I said softly. His eyes met mine.

"We don't have a choice, we have orders from Dad. He wants to go AWOL that's his business. We stick to the job, you know the rules." He said. I nodded looking in the mirror at Sam. Slowly he pulled away and drove in the other direction, I stared in the side mirror at the quickly fading image of Sam, he turned and started walking away. I felt a huge void in me open up all of a sudden.

* * *

**Burkitsville, Indiana**

Burkitsville was a lush, green little town. Although the trees were bare, some of them were starting to spring back to life after the winter. There was a freshness to it all, with the rain having fallen during our drive, beads of rain hung from the buildings, covered the road and twinkled on the car hood. Dean pulled over to the side of the road when we got into town. He hesitated, looking at his cellphone.

"Call him." I urged. He shook his head.

"Nah, what's the point?" He asked, I sighed.

"OK. Let's take a look around. Maybe we'll call him later." Dean offered, I smiled and nodded.

We looked over at a little place called Scotty's Cafe where they were advertising the county's best pie. Dean looked at it with longing in his eyes and I laughed.

"Think they have apple?" He asked. I rolled my eyes and got out of the car.

Dean skipped ahead of me, going up to a middle-aged man who was sitting on the front porch, looking out at the town. He gestured to the sign. "Let me guess, Scotty?" He asked. The man looked at the sign, then back at Dean.

"Yep." He said.

"Hi, my name's John Bonham." Dean lied.

"Isn't that the drummer for Led Zeppelin?" Scotty said.

"Wow..." Dean said, taken a bit aback. "Good. Classic rock fan." He nodded appreciatively at me.

"What can I do for you, John?" Scotty said. Dean pulled two pieces of paper out of his jacket pocket, holding them out to the man. They were the pictures of two of the people who went missing last year – Holly and Vincent Parker.

"I was wondering if you'd seen these people by chance." Dean asked. Scotty looked at the flyers and then leaned back in his seat.

"Nope, who are they?" Scotty asked.

"Friends of ours. They went missing about a year ago." Dean said.

"They passed through somewhere around here, and we've already asked around Scottsburg and Salem." I explained, looking at Scotty.

He looked over at me, and then back at Dean, handing back the flyers. "Sorry. We don't get many strangers around here." His lips were in a hard line, as he regarded us with disinterest. Dean looked at me, and then back at Scotty, nodding.

He smirked. "Scotty, you've got a smile that lights up a room, anybody ever tell you that?" He quipped. Scotty just stared at Dean. I grabbed Dean by the arm, pulling him away as he chuckled. "Never mind... see you around." He said to Scotty as we left.

Next stop was the general store and gas station. We showed the pictures to an older man who had introduced himself as _Harley. _Harley showed the pictures to his wife, and she looked at them, shaking her head.

"Nope, don't remember 'em. You said they were friends of yours?" Harley said.

"That's right." Dean said, looking up as a younger woman came down the stairs carrying some boxes. She stopped, overhearing some of the conversation.

"Did the guy have a tattoo?" She asked, looking at us.

"Yes, he did." I said, exchanging a look with Dean. The girl put down the box she was carrying and looked at the pictures Harley was still holding.

She looked at the older couple. "You remember? They were just married." She said.

Harley looked again, putting his hand to his mouth, thinking. "You're right. They did stop for gas. Weren't here more than ten minutes." He said.

"You remember anything else?" Dean asked, hopeful.

"I told 'em how to get back to the Interstate. They left town." Harley said.

"Could you point me in that same direction?" Dean said, taking back the flyers.

We were driving along a small road passing an orchard when a noise started in the back seat.

"What's that noise?" I asked, glancing back. Dean shrugged and pulled over. I got out and started fumbling around in the bag. The EMF meter was beeping frantically. I looked up at Dean, showing him the EMF meter. "Well that's weird."

The orchard was old, but well maintained. We were walking through the rows of trees looking around. A fine mist hung low on the ground, the leaves on the trees were just starting to bud with new life. Dean stopped, sighting something, and waved me over. He was looking at a dark scarecrow, all in black, hanging from a wooden post. We walked over in front of it. The face of the scarecrow was like something out of _Halloween. _White, scarred, big black empty sockets for eyes. Dark stringy hair stuck out from under an aged fedora-style hat.

"Dude, you fugly." Dean muttered. I agreed, it was a scary sight to behold.

"I know they're supposed to be scary..." I said, walking a little closer to get a better look. "But are they supposed to be armed?" I asked, spotting a sickle in the scarecrow's hand. Dean frowned, and pulled a ladder over to the scarecrow. I looked around the orchard at the trees. Suddenly it felt really creepy.

Dean climbed up the ladder, where he could get a better look at the sickle. I wrinkled up my nose, the skin of the scarecrow looked dark and leathery from where I was standing. Dean pulled its arm out, pushing the material that draped over the wrist back revealing a pattern on the arm. He balanced on the ladder, and pulled out the missing persons report of Vince Parker to look at the photo again. I saw him swallow, looking at the arm on the scarecrow again.

"What is it?" I asked. He looked down at me, then back at the scarecrow.

"Nice tat." He said.

* * *

We pulled back into the general store, Dean shut the car off next to the gas pump and got out to fill up. The girl from earlier was there, looking the car over. She smiled at Dean as he got out of the car.

"You're back?" She said.

"Never left." Dean answered.

"Still looking for your friend?" She asked with a smile. Dean answered with a short nod, leaning on the back of the car. He patted the trunk and looked at her.

"You mind filling her up there..." He looked at the necklace she was wearing. It had her name on it. "..Emily."

She smiled, and got the nozzle from the pump, leaning down to insert it into the gas tank. I got out of the car to stretch, looking around.

"So," Dean said to Emily. "You grow up here?"

Emily stood up, looking at him. "I came here when I was thirteen. I lost my parents in a car accident. My aunt and uncle took me in." She explained.

"They're nice people?" Dean asked.

"Everyone's nice here." She answered.

"So what, it's the uh... perfect little town?" I asked, coming up to lean against the back door.

Emily shook her head, looking around at the town's buildings. "Well you know, it's the boonies. But I love it." She answered. "I mean, the towns around us, people are losing their homes, their farms... but here … it's almost like we're blessed."

Dean nodded, taking a breath.

"Hey you been out to the orchard? Seen that... that scarecrow?" I asked.

Emily laughed. "Yeah it creeps me out." She said. Dean laughed.

"Whose is it?" He asked.

"I dunno. It's just always been there," she said.

Dean looked over at a car that was near the building, hood up.

"That your aunt and uncle's?" He asked, nodded to the car.

Emily looked back, and then shook her head. "Customer... they had some car troubles."

"It's not a couple is it?" I asked. "A guy and a girl?" Emily nodded and Dean gave me a solemn look.

* * *

We decided to check out Scotty's Cafe. Taking a moment to let our eyes adjust from the outside, I spotted a couple who were sitting at a table inside the cafe. Scotty put two plates of apple pie down in front of them and they looked at him surprised.

"We're famous for our apples. So you gotta try this pie." He said.

"Oh, no. It – please." The girl said, looking embarrassed.

"It's on the house." Scotty said. Dean looked at them for a moment and then over to Scotty.

"Oh, hey, Scotty. Can I get a couple of coffees? One black, one white?" Scotty nodded and walked away to get it. "Oh, and some of that pie too, while you're at it." He smiled, chuckling at me, I rolled my eyes with a smile.

He grabbed my hand and gave me a smile, acting the loving boyfriend, steering me toward the table next to the other couple.

"Hey, how ya doin'?" Dean said, nodding at them. The couple smiled and waved at us. "Just passing through?" Dean asked.

"Road trip." The girl nodded.

"Hm. Yeah us too." He said, looking at me with a smile. They nodded at us. Scotty walked over to refill their cider.

"I'm sure these people want to eat in peace." He said sternly, looking at Dean.

"Just a little friendly conversation." I said, smiling sweetly at him. Scotty looked at me and then walked away.

"Oh, and that coffee, too man. Thanks!" Dean called out to him. Scotty looked a little agitated. Dean turned back to the couple. "So, what brings you to town?" He asked.

"We just stopped for gas. And, uh, the guy at the gas station saved our lives." The woman said.

"Is that right?" Dean said, exchanging a look with me.

"Yeah, one of our brake lines was leaking. We had no idea. He's fixing it for us." The guy said.

I smiled, concerned. "Nice people." I said.

"Yeah." The man said.

"So, how long until you're up and running?" Dean asked.

"Sundown." The man answered, taking a bite of his apple pie.

"Really?" Dean said, looking thoughtful. "To fix a brake line?" He asked, letting the scepticism show in his voice. The man nodded. Dean continued. "I mean, I know a thing or two about cars. I could probably have you up and running in about an hour. I wouldn't charge you anything."

"You know, thanks a lot, but I think we'd rather have a mechanic do it." The girl answered, looking uncomfortable.

"Sure. I know." Dean replied, pausing a moment.

He leaned forward again. "You know, it's just that these roads. They're not real safe at night." The couple exchanged a look, clearly thinking Dean was nuts.

"I'm sorry?" The girl asked, looking at me, then Dean.

"I know it sounds strange, but uh – you might be in danger." Dean said.

The man looked at him annoyed. "Look, we're trying to eat. Okay." He turned away, clearly the conversation was over.

"Yeah." Dean said, turning back to me, a disappointed look in his eye. I watched the couple, they looked worried, but not as much as they should be. "You know, Sam could give them that puppy dog look, and they'd buy right into it!" Dean whispered at me under his breath, frustrated. I patted him on the arm sympathetically.

The bell above the cafe door jingled, and I watched the Sheriff come into the cafe. Scotty came out of the back room.

"Thanks for coming Sheriff." Scotty said. Dean looked at me nervously, I looked around for our exits, just in case. Scotty had a whispered conversation with the Sheriff and they both looked over at us. Dean looked away, muttering under his breath. The Sheriff then walked over to us.

"I'd like a word please." He said.

"Come on, I'm having a bad day already." Dean sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"You don't want to make it worse." He threatened, leaning on the table, looking from me to Dean, who was nodding resignedly.

* * *

The Sheriff had followed us in the Impala until we reached the town outskirts before turning around.

"Wow, they really don't want us around there." I said, looking in the mirror.

"Yeah, something's not right." Dean muttered, pulling over.

"So, what do we do?" I asked, looking over at him.

"Well, it's not long until sundown," Dean replied. "I reckon we sit pretty for a bit and then head back to that orchard." I nodded, it's exactly what I'd been thinking too.

* * *

It was dark, we'd parked near where the EMF reading had gone off the charts earlier. Nothing seemed to be stirring, it was quiet, creepy. I pulled my jacket tighter around me and shivered.

"You cold?" Dean asked, looking at me.

"No, just creeped out. It's so quiet." I answered, looking around.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." He said, frowning in the dark.

Suddenly we heard screams coming from inside the orchard. We jumped to attention, grabbing our guns and following the sounds. There was a movement as something dark ran past in the dark. It was quick, whatever it was. We could see the couple now, they were running blindly, the girl was whimpering.

We ran toward them, reaching a clearing just as they did. She screamed as they nearly ran into us, stopping.

"Get back to your car." Dean instructed, looking around the orchard at the trees. The couple looked behind us and we saw it at the same time. The scarecrow from earlier, advancing on them.

"Go! Go!" I said, pushing them behind us. Dean cocked his gun and took a shot at the scarecrow, it stumbled, but kept coming. I took my turn to shoot it then, but it did little to stop it from moving. Dean pushed me back, starting to run, shooting at it again. The scarecrow kept coming.

"Move, run!" Dean said, pushing me ahead of him. He kept shooting at the scarecrow, running behind me as I chased the couple down the row of trees. Finally we reached the tree line and broke out on to the road, coming to the car. Dean swung around, we were both looking for the scarecrow, but it was gone, nowhere to be seen.

"What – what the hell was that?" The man asked, panting, his arm around his girlfriend.

"Don't ask." I said, breathing heavily. Dean looked at me, frowning, and started to move us toward the Impala.

* * *

**Motel Room – ****_next morning_**

I came out of the bathroom towelling off my hair, Dean was sitting on the edge of the bed, talking on his cellphone.

"Yeah, I'm telling ya. Burkitsville, Indiana. Fun town." He said. There was a pause as he listened to Sam on the other end of the phone. I smiled, happy that they were at least talking.

"No, we can cope without you, you know." He said with a chuckle, nodding cheekily at me dressed in nothing but a towel.

"No, it's gotta be more than a spirit. It's a god. A pagan god, anyway." Dean said. We'd talked about it for hours last night, coming to this conclusion.

"Well there's an annual cycle to it's killings. And the fact that the victims are always a man and a woman. Like some kind of fertility rite. And you should see the locals, the way they treated this couple. Fattening them up like a Christmas turkey." Dean said, his eyes trained on me. I grinned and bent over to get some clothes out of my duffel bag.

"Yeah, Beth thinks it's a ritual sacrifice to appease some Pagan god. The god possesses the scarecrow, and the scarecrow takes its sacrifice. And for another year the crops won't wilt, and disease won't spread." I glanced back at him, he was still staring.

"No, not yet." Dean was answering Sam's questions, but that's not where his mind was. I smiled to myself, it was always fun to get some alone time with Dean, he was so easy to tease.

"I know. We're actually on our way to a local community college. We have an appointment with a professor. You know, since we don't have our trusty sidekick geek boy to do all the research." He laughed. Sam said something else on the other end.

"I'm not hinting anything. Actually, uh – I want you to know..." He looked away from and I went to put my clothes on the bed; trying to give him a little space to talk, I walked back into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I could still hear him, but he didn't need to know that.

"Sam. You were right. You gotta do your own thing. You gotta live your own life." Dean said. There was a pause, and then: "You've always known what you want. And you go after it. You stand up to Dad, and you always have. Hell, I wish I – anyway... I admire that about you. I'm proud of you Sammy." I smiled, as I rinsed out my mouth, leaning on the basin.

"Say you'll take care of yourself." Dean said to Sam's response. "Call me when you find Dad."

There was a pause, and then he was behind me in the bathroom, hands coming around my waist as he leaned in to kiss me on the back of my neck, eyes meeting mine in the mirror.

"He ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, he's fine." Dean nodded.

"Are you?" I asked.

Dean looked thoughtful, pulling me back into him, a hand sneaking in between the fold of my towel to brush against my stomach. He grinned.

"I will be in a minute." He answered cheekily. I rolled my eyes and leaned back into him.

"Don't we have an appointment?" I asked, looking at his watch. He frowned, looking between me and the watch, torn.

He seemed to make up his mind and pulled me with a chuckle into the bedroom. "So we'll have to make it quick... they won't mind if we're a little late." He pulled the towel off me with an appreciative intake of breath and then guided me on to the bed where he could kiss me. "God you're amazing..." He whispered. I smiled, I liked this side of Dean.

* * *

**Community College**

We were only ten minutes late, but both feeling a little more stress free by the time we got there. We'd met up with the history professor and were walking back with him to his classroom.

"It's not every day I get a research question on Pagan ideology." The Professor was saying to Dean, watching his step as we walked down some stairs.

"Yeah, well, call it a hobby." Dean answered with a smile.

"But you said you were interested in local lore?" He asked.

"Mmhmm." Dean confirmed, nodding.

"I'm afraid Indiana isn't really known for its Pagan worship." The Professor replied.

"Well, what if it was imported?" I asked. "You know, like the Pilgrims brought their religion over. Wasn't a lot of this area settled by immigrants?"

The Professor seemed to consider this. "Well, yeah." He answered.

"Like that town near here," Dean said. "Burkitsville. Where are their ancestors from?"

"Uh, northern Europe, I believe, Scandinavia." Was the answer.

"What could you tell us about those pagan gods?" I asked.

"Well, there are hundreds of Norse gods and goddesses." The Professor replied.

"We're actually looking for one. Might live in an orchard." Dean said.

The professor thought about it, leading us into a classroom and going over to a bookshelf nearby. He pulled a large book out, putting it on a table and opening it up.

"Woods god, hm?" He said. "Well, let's see." He leafed through some pages. I noticed a picture of a scarecrow on a post, surrounded by farmers in a field and put my hand on the page.

"Wait, what's that one?" I asked, pointing to the picture. Dean looked in, nodding.

"Oh, that's not a woods god, per se." The Professor said. I did a quick scan of the writing.

"Vanir?" I asked. The professor nodded.

I read from the page: "The Vanir were Norse gods of protection and prosperity, keeping the local settlements safe from harm. Some villages built effigies of the Vanir in their fields. Other villages practiced human sacrifice. One male, and one female." Dean and I exchanged a knowing look at this. He pointed at the picture.

"Kind of looks like a scarecrow, huh?" He asked.

"I suppose." Said the Professor.

"This particular Vanir – it's energy sprung from a sacred tree?" Dean asked.

"Well, Pagans believed all sorts of things were infused with magic." The Professor explained.

"So what would happen if the sacred tree was torched? You think it'd kill the god?" He asked.

The Professor laughed at that comment. "Son, these are just legends we're discussing."

"Of course." I said smiling. "Thank you very much for your time."

"Glad I could help." The Professor said.

* * *

We were walking back to the Impala, the day was getting on and we discussed how we needed to find the sacred tree that was obviously the source of the power for this scarecrow.

"You know this thing has probably been around for centuries... that's one couple _every year _it's some serious evil business." Dean said looking at me.

"Yeah, yeah it's a good thing we're here." I said absently.

"Yeah, about that." Dean said, turning to me. "I've been meaning to ask. Why is it that Dad rang you last night?"

I stopped short, suddenly lost for words.

"Well, I don't know Dean." I shrugged, looking around me.

"It just seems a little odd, I mean, he's been missing for what? Nine months? He never called any of us before now, and then suddenly..." He looked puzzled. "...you weren't even surprised when it was him. I saw your face." I looked down at my feet.

"How long have you been talking to him?" He asked quietly, too quiet. I looked up, panicked.

"I haven't been talking to him." I said.

"Well, you've known something." He said, stepping up to me. I had a hard time meeting his eyes, taking a deep breath.

"He told me not to tell you." I said, looking at him, apologetic.

"What?! What do you mean 'told you'?" He looked sharply at me, it dawning on him. "Have you seen him?" He asked. I nodded.

"When?" He grabbed me by the arms.

"Dean..." I sighed.

"When?!" He shook me a little, forcing me to look at him.

"In Lawrence." I said softly, looking down.

Dean stepped back, his arms dropping to his side. I raised a hand to my forehead, running it across my eyes.

"What?" He said. "You never told me... _that was two months ago!" _He was pacing, angry, looking at me hurt and betrayed.

"Dean, he told me not to. He _ordered _me not to." I stepped forward to grab his arm but he moved away, breaking my hold.

"No, no... you don't get to use that on me. How could you not tell me? _How could you_?" He asked, backing away.

"Dean!" I cried out. "What would you have done? What if he'd told you to keep it to yourself, to not tell me, or Sam. God. You know what he's like! You think this has been easy on me? Not being able to say anything?"

He stopped and looked at me. "I'd have told you." He said.

"No you wouldn't have Dean, that's the point. We do what we're told." I looked at him, begging him to understand. "_We do what we're told." _I whispered. He shook his head.

"I don't believe this." He said numbly, shaking his head. I couldn't believe we were having this conversation, I couldn't believe he didn't get it.

"Dean, come on..." I said, stepping toward him.

"No!" He yelled, I recoiled, hurt. "You said I didn't have to do this alone. You said you would always be there for me. Yet you kept this from me, _from me Beth!_ You know, I just... I don't know you right now." He started to walk away, waving his hand in the air. "I don't know you."

I ran after him, cutting him off and pushing him back with my hands.

"How dare you!" I said angrily, ignoring the looks we got from a few students nearby. I shoved him in the chest. "Where the hell do you think I've been for the last nine years? _Right here, with you Dean! _I'm always here. How dare you say that to me?" Dean looked away, scowling.

"What do you always say? What? _Listen to Dad. Do what Dad says! _Well god dammit Dean, he told me to hide this from you. He ordered me not to tell you, and you can't tell me you wouldn't have done the exact same thing if you'd been in my shoes. I didn't ask for this!" Tears were in my eyes, I caught my breath and stepped back. My heart was beating like it would leap out of my chest.

Dean refused to look at me, I felt the disappointment from him, the hurt. I had to get out of there, I just had to get away. I turned and walked away, quickly. Needing some space. Part of me was hoping he'd chase me, but that wasn't Dean. He was angry, he needed space too. He would stuff it all down and fume, throw things at walls, and go have a few drinks. I slumped against a tree once I was out of sight, falling down to the ground, head on my knees. I felt the panic rising in my chest, struggling to breathe. _How was I going to fix this? Could it be fixed? _I silently cursed John for putting me in this position, for hurting us like this.

I don't know how long I sat there. Half an hour maybe. Dean never came after me, I didn't expect him to. I didn't hear the car leave, I hoped he'd be waiting for me to come back, but I wasn't sure, I didn't know what he was thinking. Slowly I pulled my phone out and sent a text to John's mobile number.

_He knows. _That's all I said. That's all that needed to be said.

I then phoned Dean, I needed to hear his voice before I headed back, but it rang out to voicemail. I sighed, leaning back against the tree, closing my eyes. It was getting on in the day, we had to get back. We had to get to the orchard, to find the tree. Slowly I pulled myself to my feet. If he had left, I'd just find my own way back and rejoin him at the motel.

I walked around the corner and noticed the Impala still where we'd left it. I frowned. Dean was nowhere to be seen. I walked toward it, looking around. There were only a handful of people around. I went up to a guy sitting at the bus stop nearby, and he gave me a flirty smile.

"Hey." He said, nodding at me.

"Uh, hi. I'm sorry. I was wondering if you happen to have seen a guy hanging around here? A bit taller than me, brown hair, wearing a brown leather jacket? Would have been over near that Impala." I pointed back at the car.

"Oh." His face fell. "No, sorry. I haven't seen anyone like that." I sighed, looking around.

"Well, thanks anyway." I smiled, walking away.

I pulled out my cellphone and called Dean again. Voicemail. This time I left a message.

"Come on Dean, we have a job to do. Where are you?" I said, hanging up.

I tried one more time, walking closer to the car. I heard the phone then, ringing. I looked around, expecting Dean to walk up to me at any moment. But nothing. Then I realised, it was coming from near the car. I walked over... his phone was on the ground, near the driver's door. I picked it up, a sinking feeling coming into my stomach.

* * *

I was at the motel again – it was four hours later. No sign of Dean anywhere, the room was as we'd left it, I sighed, looking around at our things. I'd had to hot wire the car because Dean had the keys. I didn't want to think about what he was going to say if I'd just left him at the college, but I'd waited another hour, he hadn't showed.

I'd returned to Burkitsville, but kept out of sight, something wasn't right. The people in town were acting all weird, I saw the Sheriff with the owners of the general store standing around, they seemed anxious, arguing about something. But I couldn't make out what it was.

My phone rang. I jumped, answering without looking at the number.

"Dean?" I asked urgently.

"Uh, no... it's Sam." Came the other voice on the phone. "Why would it be Dean? Aren't you with him?"

"No, god. We got in a fight, and then when I got back to the car he was gone, and his phone is here, and I don't know where he is, and there's the scarecrow, and it's going to be getting dark..."

"Beth!" Sam said. "You're babbling."

"I know, I know." I said, taking a steadying breath.

"Tell me what happened." Sam said.

"Well we went to see this professor, and we found out that the scarecrow is a Vanir, it's a pagan protection demi-god, if you will. It requires a female and male sacrifice every year, in order to keep on bringing prosperity to the surrounding area." I said.

"OK. So what happened with Dean?" Sam asked.

"I don't know Sam. We had a fight. I walked off, came back half an hour later, and he was gone, car still there, phone on the ground. I waited for him to come back for over an hour, he never showed. Something's happened to him, I know it, I'm really scared Sam."

"I'm already on my way to you." Sam said quietly.

"You are?" I asked. "Why?"

"Dean wasn't answering his phone. I just had a feeling. I'm about an hour away... maybe less." He said into the phone.

"OK. Well, I'm going to the orchard. If Dean is ok, that's where he'll go." I said. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. "Even if he's not ok, I have a feeling that's where we'll find him..." I didn't voice what I was thinking.

"No, you should wait for me." Sam said.

"I can't Sam. It's almost dark, I'm going."

"OK. OK." Sam sighed. "Just... be careful. I'll be there as soon as I can."

* * *

It was dark by the time I got to the orchard, I considered taking the gun, but then remembered how useless it had been the night before, so I left it on the seat. I moved into the orchard, alert at every sound. As I got closer to where the scarecrow had been I heard a branch snap behind me, and gasped as a hand grabbed me, covering my mouth.

"Shhh shhh shhh." Sam whispered in my ear and I relaxed. "Getting sloppy." He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Shut up!" I frowned. "You scared the crap out of me." I shook myself, not happy with him sneaking up on me, but then, he was trained to do that. I consoled myself the knowledge that had it been anyone else I would have heard them.

He inclined his toward the centre of the orchard, and I nodded.

"The scarecrow was about fifty yards ahead," I whispered. He nodded.

We moved quietly through the trees, keeping to the shadows.

"You don't have a plan, do you?" I stopped when I heard her voice. It was Emily from the general store. Sam looked at me questioningly. They weren't more than a few yards ahead.

"I'm workin' on it!" Dean's voice sounded. I sighed in relief when I heard him, but almost immediately the gravity of the situation hit me too. The locals had tied him to him to a tree, along with Emily on the tree next to him. They were the new sacrifices.

Sam waved at me, indicating he was going around the other side, we would approach from different directions, just in case the locals were still in the woods. I could just see in the fading light that the scarecrow was still on it's post, I breathed a little easier and started toward them. Dean was struggling with his ropes, but they were tight.

The girl saw me as I moved into the clearing, but she didn't recognise me because she started to panic, muttering _oh my god _over and over. I hurried over.

"Dean!" I said, coming around the tree. His eyes met mine and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Beth! Oh, I take everything back I said. I'm so happy to see you." He said joyfully, struggling at the ropes. "Come on, get me down..." He said. I pulled his pocket knife out of my jeans, I'd found it at the motel, and started cutting through the ropes, looking at him. He seemed all right, unhurt.

"Dean I'm sorry." I said, he just smiled at me.

"It's all right. It's all right. I'm sorry too... I'm glad you're ok, I was worried." His eyes showed just how worried he was, he'd had hours to wonder just where I was while he'd been held captive.

As I freed him, he grabbed me in a hug, holding me close. He pulled back, moving toward Emily.

He took the knife from me and turned to find Sam had come around and was working at the ropes holding the girl.

"Sam? What? How'd you get here?" He asked, stopping short.

"I, uh – I stole a car." Sam replied with a smile.

"Haha! That's my boy!" Dean said with a laugh. He pulled me away as Sam freed the girl. "Keep an eye on that scarecrow, it could come alive at any minute." He said.

"What scarecrow?" Sam asked. We spun around. The post was empty. The scarecrow was gone. Immediately Dean backed me up to Sam and Emily.

"Come on, we gotta get out of here. Now!" We started to run back toward where I'd parked the Impala at the road.

"This tree you're talking about -" Sam was saying.

"It's the source of its power." Dean said.

"So let's find it and burn it!" Sam said.

"In the morning." Dean said, looking at me. "Let's just shag ass before Leather Face catches up."

Suddenly a flashlight shone on us and Dean stopped short, we bumped into him. I heard the sound of a shotgun being cocked and looked over. Harley and his wife from the general store were standing there. Dean pulled me in another direction, spinning us around intending to run, but we were surrounded by other locals, all pointing guns at us.

"Please. Let us go!" Emily said to the older couple.

"It'll be over quickly. I promise." Harley said to her.

"Please..." She begged.

"Emily, you have to let him take you." The woman said. "You have to -"

Her words were cut short, and we stared in horror as Harley suddenly grunted. He looked down to see the sickle from the scarecrow sticking clear through his stomach. Emily screamed and threw herself into Dean's arms. Suddenly the older woman disappeared too, both Harley and her dragged off by the scarecrow. The rest of the townspeople were panicking and they ran off into the orchard.

Dean was looking at me and Sam, arms around Emily, moving us away from the clearing.

"Is that it, it's done?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, yeah, probably." I said. "He took two..." I trailed off. The unspoken words lingering in the air.

Dean pulled away from Emily, turning to look at me. I hesitated, unsure of what to say. He sighed and moved to gather me into a hug, I held him close, as Sam looked on, a concerned look in his eyes. He took Emily's arm, and moved away with her back toward the road. We stood there a little while longer before following.

* * *

_**The next morning**_

"And so... I was about to call you, when that son of a bitch hit me in the back of the head with his shotgun." Dean was explaining. "I must have dropped my phone and they didn't notice."

We were walking through the orchard with Sam and Emily, looking for the sacred tree. Dean slowed down, putting his arm around me, and let the others get ahead of us.

"You were right." He said, when they had gotten far enough away not to overhear.

"About?" I asked, curious.

"Dad." He turned to look at me, and I felt tears coming up. I blinked them back.

"I wouldn't have told you either." He confessed. I nodded. I knew that, and I knew why.

"I'm sorry, I was just … shocked. And I was angry at him. I mean, _what was he thinking_?" Dean said, looking up at the sky. I shook my head sadly.

"Let's just promise each other one thing. Let's never keep something like that a secret again." He said, looking at me. "I don't care what the rules are."

"You're beginning to sound like Sam." I laughed, he chuckled with me.

"Yeah, maybe I am." He said softly.

"Well the way I see it." He said, lifting my chin to look at me. "You're the only who hasn't walked out on me. He's one to talk about loyalty, and trust." He sighed. "I don't want him to come between us again."

I looked at him for a long moment, there was a fierce determination in his eyes. A new resolution that hadn't been there before. I nodded agreement.

"Do you know where he is?" He asked me, hopeful.

"No." I answered honestly. "I wish I did." He nodded.

"OK. Well, it doesn't matter. We just keep hunting, doing what we do best." He said, putting an arm back around my shoulders and walking toward the others.

We found Sam and Emily standing in front of an old apple tree. It had carvings on it, one of them looked like the tattoo from the missing persons report on Vince Parker. Sam stepped forward and started to douse the tree in gasoline.

Taking a stick, dipping it in the gas, Dean lit it, watching the fire catch hold of the wood.

"Let me." Emily said, stepping up and taking the branch from Dean.

"You know the whole town's gonna die." He said, sullenly.

"Good." She said, and threw the burning branch on to the tree. In a matter of moments the entire tree was in flames. We watched it with a silence, before returning to the car.

* * *

We'd dropped Emily off at the bus station. She was going back to Boston, where she'd been before her parents died. We watched her bus pull away, she smiled and waved at us, we waved back.

"Think she's going to be all right?" Sam asked.

"I hope so." Dean answered.

"And the rest of the townspeople, they'll just get away with it." Sam said.

"Well, what'll happen to the town will have to be punishment enough." Dean said, starting to walk to the car.

"So, can we drop you off somewhere?" Dean asked, looking at Sam.

"No. I think you're stuck with me." He said, I smiled at him. Dean stopped walking and looked at Sam, a curious look on his face.

"What made you change your mind?" He asked.

"I didn't. I still want to find Dad." Sam said. "And you're still a pain in the ass." Dean nodded. "But Jess and Mom – they're both gone. Dad is God knows where." Sam stopped and looked from Dean to me. He reached out and put an arm around my shoulder, pulling me against his side.

"The three of us. We're all that's left. So, if we're gonna see this through, we're gonna do it together." He said, looking at Dean.

Dean paused, raising an eyebrow, and looked at his brother with a raised eyebrow.

"Hold me Sam. That was beautiful." He joked. Sam punched him in the shoulder and we all laughed.

"Hey, you should be kissing our asses right now, you were dead meat dude." Sam said.

Dean was shaking his head. "Yeah, right. I had a plan, I'd have gotten out."

Sam and I smiled at him. "Riiight." I said.

He just looked at us, then shook his head and rounded the car to the driver's seat. "Come on," He said. "Let's get out of this place, I don't care how good their damn pie is!"

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES **

* * *

This was one of the more enjoyable episodes to me – I love the pagan god sacrifice stuff, I think it's fascinating to explore the kind of mind set it would create to grow up in a town like that, and have such a 'responsibility' to provide sacrifices to keep your town safe. I grew up in a tiny little town (140 people) so I am easily aware of how a tight knit community like that could fall into the shadow very easily, especially if it was to 'benefit the whole' like Stacy keeps talking about.

* * *

Next up, Beth takes an ailing Dean to a faith healer... but it's not what she thinks it is! Going to have to sit with it a little - but I should have plenty of think time tomorrow to see how I can write her in to this story. I liked the episode, so I'd like to touch on it, especially since it should give me an opportunity to explore Beth's faith too. Suggestions welcome :D

* * *

Theme song for this chapter seems to be _Mirrors _by Justin Timberlake. I've been hearing it all day LOL I think it sort of fits, especially since Dean needed to realise that Beth didn't do anything he wouldn't have... as much as it hurt. Anyway, to RebornRose1992 – I hope I did Dean's reaction justice.

* * *

Hello to all my new followers – hope you're enjoying the story so far and continue to do so, I do my best to do it justice :D Feel free to drop a line or two in a review to let me know what you think!

* * *

Voiceless Angel – your review just made me giggle. I swear it can't be right to get excited about your own fic – that just sounds really egotistical - but I probably re-read the stories once a day, which I tell myself is just to get more story ideas, but really, I just love imagining Dean & Beth interacting :D Glad you're liking the updates!

* * *

Might not be an update tomorrow... I have work and family time scheduled, which is good, but also a bit of a bummer when all I can think about is Dean & Beth right now. I know, that sounds really pathetic – but my family life is just really, complicated right now, this makes for a good escape.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the latest update!


	11. Faith - You Found Me

_**A/N Here it is. A long one. Hope it was worth the wait :) **_

* * *

_Lost and insecure__  
__You found me, you found me__  
__Lyin' on the floor__  
__Surrounded, surrounded__  
__Why'd you have to wait?__  
__Where were you? Where were you?__  
__Just a little late  
You found me, you found me_

* * *

**FAITH – YOU FOUND ME**

* * *

**Interstate 90  
**_**Impala**_

The last time I'd been in Wisconsin, I'd been fleeing a murdered father, by my own hand, but not of my own doing. While Dean had avoided Lawrence, Kansas for most of his life, I had been doing the same – only I found it was the entire state that I avoided. John had done a few jobs up this way, wendigos, poltergeists... I always stayed behind. But John wasn't here anymore, and we had work to do.

We were heading down a familiar stretch of highway that would bring us to Evansville, it was further South than where I'd run from, but the memories were still flooding back. I sat in the back seat, staring out the window. I could feel Sam glancing back at me every now and then, and he'd exchanged concerned looks with Dean, but they didn't speak. I sighed. I didn't even know what day it was. But I remembered that fateful day...

* * *

**Baraboo, Wisconsin  
****_9 years earlier_**

_It was a Saturday. Saturday afternoon, on a cold winter morning. Snow was scattered on the ground outside and I was pulling on a sweater, preparing to go out into the cold and meet my friends. We were going to the movies a town over. _

_I ran down the stairs, my warm boots thumping loudly as I went. There was a coat rack by the door and my long trenchcoat was waiting for me. I grabbed it and was halted by a voice behind me._

"_Where do you think you're going young lady?" He asked, and I turned, a defiant look in my eyes. Dad. We'd been arguing since last night, same old crap. He wanted me to focus more on my studies and less on the boy I'd been hanging around with, and I wanted to do what every other normal teenage girl wanted to do. I wanted to have some fun._

"_I'm meeting Lexi and we're going to the movies." I informed him, crossing my arms in front of me. _

"_What about Travis?" He asked, looking at me. _

_"What about him?" I asked, skirting around the question. _

"_You are going to tell him you can't see him anymore, correct?" He said. I looked at him. He'd aged a lot in the last eight years, since my mom had died. His usual brown hair was shot through with grey now, and more lines etched his face than they had when she'd been alive, when we'd been happy._

_I sighed and looked at him. "No Dad. I'm not." I said, shaking my head. _

_He sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. _

"_Elizabeth. Your grades have been slipping, you're spending way too much time out, you haven't been to church in three weeks and _I'm the minister_! How do you think that looks?!" He chided me._

"_I don't care how it looks!" I said loudly, pacing. "You're always on my back Dad, why can't you just let me grow up!"_

_"You're fifteen years old!" He said argued. "You're still a child!" I glared at him._

_"No I'm not Dad!" I yelled and he looked at me."_No, I'm not._" I said quietly, calming down._

"_Elizabeth." He said, reaching out to me._

"_No... no you don't get to lecture me Dad. You can't just leave me here for days on end to fend for myself while you go off on these crazy trips of yours with people I don't even know, and then get to tell me what I can do, when I can do it. It doesn't work both ways." I argued. He sighed. _

"_Beth, I have important work..." I threw my hands up in the air and groaned._

"_Yeah, yeah, important work! So important you won't tell me a thing about it?" I asked, looking at him. _

"_It's for your own safety." He said back to me. I snorted, crossing my arms in front of my chest. _

"_You know I'm sick of hearing it! I'm sick of being kept in the dark! I hate you!" _

"_Beth!" He'd called out to me._

* * *

**Evansville, WI**

_**Present day**_

"Beth!" Dean's voice brought me back into myself. "Hey, earth to Beth, you in there?" He asked, turning around from the driver's seat to look at me.

"Huh?" I asked, looking up from the window.

"We're here. Let's go sleepyhead." I nodded and got out of the car. It was dark, misty, and the house we were in front of should have been condemned years ago it was so dilapidated. I gazed around at us, shrubs dotted the landscape, old sheds were falling down either side of the house. Lots of hiding places for our prey.

Sam was talking to Dean. "What have you got those amped up to?" He asked, leaning over the trunk as they pulled out a couple of tasers.

"A hundred thousand volts." Dean answered.

"Damn." Sam breathed.

"Yeah, I want this rawhead extra frickin' crispy." Dean said, checking the voltage on another taser, he looked up at me and tossed it to me. "Remember, you only get one shot with these things. So make it count." We nodded.

The basement was dark and dank, water dripped from the overhead pipes and it smelled of mould and mildew. Dean led the way down the basement stairs, lighting the way with his flashlight, holding his taser in out with his other hand. Sam followed, with me bringing up the rear.

The house had been abandoned for a long time, old wooden furniture lay around rotting. A rat scampered past my food and I grimaced, swinging around when a noise came from a cupboard behind me. Dean was creeping toward it, light and gun in front of him, a concentrating look on his face – he was completely focused.

He looked at me. "On three." He whispered. "One... two... three!" Dean swung the door open and I pointed my taser and light forward, freezing when I heard a shriek. The young boy and girl who had been missing were crouched inside, covering their ears, they looked terrified.

I moved forward to crouch in front of them, checking them over. They looked scared, but unharmed.

"Is it still here?" Sam whispered from behind me, the children nodded.

"OK." Dean said. "Let's get them out of here." I nodded, pulling the children to their feet and holding the boy's hand.

"Come on, let's go." I said, ushering them through the room toward the stairs.

Sam was following me up the stairs and suddenly the creature reached out from under the stairs, tripping him – his taser went flying across the room as he fell. The children screamed and I rushed to the top of the stairs with them, pushing them ahead of me.

"Sam!" Dean yelled, moving back to get around the stairs, looking for his target. I hesitated at the top of the stairs, looking back. Dean shot his taser at the creature as it moved but he missed, the taser hitting the wall, sparks flying.

"Beth! Get 'em outta here!" Dean said, helping Sam to his feet. Sam fled further into the room, looking for his taser.

I nodded at Dean. "Here, take this!" I called out, tossing him my taser. He caught it and smiled, I turned to get the kids outside.

There were the sounds of movement as the boys went back on the hunt. Suddenly, half way to the door I heard Sam yell out.

"Dean!" I looked back, hesitating, before I ushered the kids to the door.

"Quick, go get in the car and stay there!" I ordered, running back into the house and down the basement stairs.

It was deathly quiet, I flashed my torch around and saw the smoking remains of the rawhead on the floor. I looked around urgently to see Dean, lying in a pool of water. Sam was cradling his head, shaking his brother.

"_Dean," _I whispered, rushing to his side. He wasn't moving, limp in Sam's arms. Sam was holding his face.

"Dean, hey. Hey!" Sam said. I reached for my phone and put in the call to 911... eyes closed as I prayed.

"Yeah... yeah... I need an ambulance right away." I said... eyes meeting Sam's, he was terrified.

* * *

_**Baraboo, Wisconsin  
9 years earlier**_

_I paced the room a little while, angry, tears in my eyes. Why did he treat me like I was ten years old? Grabbing another jacket out of my closet, I crossed to the window and opened it, contemplating the angle of the roof that would lead me down to the ground. It was icy, but I could make it. _

_That's when I felt it. Just a little brush across my cheek at first. Then more like a tendril curling in my hair, something tickled my ear. I brushed at it, pulling myself up on to the window sill._

_Suddenly, everything went black._

_I came to, looking at myself in the mirror. I was applying lipstick to my lips and sending kisses at my reflection. Only I wasn't doing that. I frowned, the face I was looking at, my face, didn't move though, only to smile._

'Hello, dearie'_. A voice sounded in my head. I looked around startled, but my body wouldn't move._

'You won't be able to move, sorry love. I'm afraid your body belongs to me now'. _Said the voice. _

_OK. I was clearly going mad now._

_Then I felt it, the presence, the sheer evil, a rising darkness as it overwhelmed me. I saw images of fire, and flesh, and rotting carcasses flash before my eyes. Creatures rose before me and laughed as others screamed in agony. I watched in horror, closing my eyes but the images still burned. And then _she _turned to me, a smile playing on her lips as she came and kissed me, a blackness passing into my mouth as I gasped, unable to breathe, being consumed by this woman... this thing._

_I watched, as if I wasn't even in my body, as if I was standing outside of it – I moved with a certain elegance that belied my age. Looking in the mirror my eyes suddenly faded to black pits. I gasped. _What are you? _I thought. _'Your worst nightmare.' _came the reply._

_She, I... we were moving down the stairs. My father had gone into the kitchen and was making himself a cup of tea. He heard me come into the room behind him, and turned, an apologetic look in his eyes._

_"Beth." He started, "I'm - ..." He froze, looking at my eyes, his skin going a shade paler._

"_Get out of my daughter." He demanded. _

_I...she laughed. It was surreal hearing my own laughter come out of my voice when all I wanted to do was scream. I was screaming, but it was all inside my head, no one could hear me. _

"_How did you...?" He started to ask, and I lifted an amulet, one he'd give me years ago and held it out, looking at it._

_"Seems Lizzie never really liked this ugly old thing." She said with my voice._

_My father turned a steely gaze to me._

"_What do you want?" He asked._

"_Oh Patrick... don't you remember me?" I could see my body moving with mannerisms I'd never used before. The way she tilted my head, smirked, and put her hand on her hip. It was truly another entity inhabiting my body. She moved up to my father, just a fraction of space between them as she hovered my lips over his. "I'm disappointed." She whispered._

_His eyes widened and he looked at me in shock. "Rhuddem?" He asked. _

"_Bingo..." She smiled, stepping back to look him over. "I've been waiting a long, long time for this Patrick." _

* * *

**UW Hospital, Madison, WI  
****_Present Day_**

"Patrick..." Sam was saying beside me. "Patrick Burkovitz..." His voice started me out of my thoughts. I looked up, he was filling out the hospital admittance form for Dean.

"I'm so sorry to ask." The receptionist said, looking sympathetic – I'd been staring at my hands on the counter, a world away. "There doesn't seem to be any insurance on file."

"Right. Uh, ok." I said, flustered. I opened my wallet and removed the credit card I had there. It was new, and had something like a $20,000 credit limit on it. I handed it to her, numb, worried.

She glanced at the card, smiling back at me. "Ok, Mrs Burkovitz." I nodded.

Sam squeezed my shoulder and walked over to two police officers nearby, I blindly followed and he put his arm around me, holding me steady. I leaned into his side, closing my eyes for a moment.

"Look, we can finish this up later," One of the officers said.

"No," Sam said glancing at me, then back up at them. "No, it's ok. We were just taking a shortcut through the neighbourhood. And, um, the windows were rolled down, we heard some screaming when we drove past the house, and we stopped. Ran in." He explained, I nodded agreement.

"And you found the kids in the basement?" The other officer asked.

"Yeah." Sam answered with a nod.

"Well, thank God you did." The first officer said, smiling.

I spotted the doctor walking toward us and pulled away. "Excuse me." I muttered, walking toward her. Sam made to go with me, making his own excuses.

"Sure. Thanks for your help."

I found I couldn't talk, I didn't know how to ask the question. Sam came up behind me and looked at the doctor.

"Hey, Doc. Is he..." He trailed off, also having trouble with the question.

"He's resting." The doctor said.

"And?" I asked, looking up at him.

The doctor looked grim, glancing first at Sam, then me. "The electrocution triggered a heart attack. Pretty massive, I'm afraid. His heart... it's damaged."

"How damaged?" Sam asked, putting his arm around my shoulder, I leaned into him, feeling nauseous.

"We've done all we can. We can try and keep him comfortable at this point. But, I'd give him a couple weeks, at most, maybe a month." The doctor said, point-blank.

I felt light-headed and held on to Sam, he frowned, glancing at me then back at the doctor.

"No, no. There's, there's... gotta be something you can do, some kind of treatment." Sam said, shaking his head, tears in his eyes.

"We can't work miracles. I really am sorry." The doctor said apologetically.

I felt my legs start to give and I staggered over to a chair, Sam sitting next to me quickly.

"Beth, hey are you ok?" He asked, looking upset, worried.

"No... no I'm really not ok, Sam." I said, my breathing coming harder, I found myself gasping for breath, in the back of my mind I registered that I was probably about to have a panic attack, I reached for the arm of the chair, gasping for air.

"Hey... hey... deep breaths ok. Just breathe." Sam was saying. He was breathing with me, looking pale as well. I gripped his hand and nodded, deliberately slowing down my breathing, looking into his eyes with sorrow.

"We're gonna get him some help Beth, we'll call every contact in Dad's journal, everyone we know. There's got to be something we can do, I won't stop until we find it, Beth, are you hearing me?" Sam asked.

I nodded, pulling my wits around me. That's right, we had contacts. Someone would know what to do. "Ok..." I agreed. "Ok."

Dean was sitting on the bed watching TV when we came into the room. He was pale with dark circles under his beautiful hazel eyes. He didn't look at us as we entered the room.

"You ever actually watched daytime TV?" He asked randomly as I pulled up a chair beside him. "It's terrible." He said, looking over at me with a half-attempted smile.

Sam shook his head and sighed. "We talked to your doctor."

Dean ignored him and looked at me. "That fabric softener teddy bear. Oh, I'm gonna hunt that little bitch down." He quipped with a smirk.

"Dean." I said, reaching forward and taking his hand in mine. He sighed and clicked the TV off.

"Yeah. All right." He said resignedly, looking up at Sam. "Well, looks like you're both gonna leave town without me."

"What? What are you talking about? I'm not going to leave you here!" I said, frowning.

Dean looked at Sam then, a seriousness settling over him. "You better take care of that car. Or, I swear, I'll haunt your ass."

"I don't think that's funny." Sam said, frowning, looking at me.

"Oh come on, it's a little funny." Dean joked. We fell silent. Sam looked down, fighting tears. I couldn't even think, I was numb. My hand trembled a bit as I clasped at Dean's, he looked down and then up at me.

"Hey, Bethie, come on. It'll be ok." He whispered to me. I shook my head.

"It's a dangerous gig. I drew the short straw. That's it, end of story." He said, putting on a brave face, but I looked in his eyes, and that's not what I saw there. I saw sadness, pain. He blinked and looked up at Sam.

"Don't talk like that, all right? We still have options." I said quietly.

"What options? Yeah, burial or cremation. And I know it's not easy. But I'm gonna die. And you can't stop it." He said. I shook my head, tears threatening to spill over. I sniffed and stood up, rushing out the door, I had to get out. I couldn't do this.

I stumbled down the hospital corridor, my eyes looking at the different signs, seeking. Suddenly it was in front of me. _Chapel _the sign read. I pushed open the door with a sigh, and entered. It was quiet, dark, lit up only by a few artificial candles on the altar, and the stained glass window behind it. I sank into a pew, falling to my knees. Clasping my hands before me, tucking them under my chin, I started to waver... just a little... waver in my faith, in my belief that we were being watched over, guided, protected.

But faith isn't only for the good times, my father had taught me that, I would not abandon it now. Slipping my rosary from around my neck, I started the prayer rounds, the words falling easily from my lips, I knew them so well. I put my heart into them, a true prayer, not just lip service. I leaned my head forward, feeling the cool, hard wood of the railing in front of me, it was sturdy, reassuring, comforting. I hung my hands over the railing and sat like this, letting the cold from the railing seep into my head as I rolled the beads through my fingers, still praying, praying for a miracle.

* * *

_**Baraboo, Wisconsin  
**__**9 years ago**__**  
**_

_My father moved suddenly, before this new entity – Rhuddem. He ran out the side of the kitchen into adjoining dining room. Rhuddem laughed, and followed at a more leisurely pace. I watched as my father crossed the dining room into the study. He was searching for something in his cabinet._

"_It's not there." She said. He turned to look at her. She smirked, drawing a knife from behind her back. She looked at it, smiling, pricking my finger with the tip. Blood started to well at the tip and she put it in her mouth, sucking at it._

_"Your daughter has a nice taste." She said, goading my father. He was inching back from her, a guarded look on his face._

"_Now..." She said, looking at him with an unsmiling face. "Where is he?" She asked._

"_Where is who?" My father asked, frowning at her._

"_Oh you know who I'm talking about Patrick O'Malley. I heard you talking to him last night..." She looked down, running a finger along the blade, opening a fresh cut – she hissed, the cut seemed to burn, but the look on my father's face was more her focus._

"_I have no idea where he is." My father said._

_"Liar!" She hissed and entered the room a little further. My father was eyeing something off on the ceiling but she was arrogant, she didn't look up._

"_Get out of my daughter, and maybe I will talk." He said, moving around the desk he'd been standing behind._

"_Oh I don't think so... I rather like her. She's also the only leverage I have on you, Preacher. You have something I want, and I have something you want. It's a fair trade, Patrick." She gave him a smug look._

_She paused, as if looking deep within, her black eyes – my black eyes, rolled back into her head as she grinned. I felt a cold touch inside my mind, like someone had left the window open and a draft had blown in. I fought it off, willing it to go away, but it was stronger than me, so much stronger. _

"_Well, now, that _is _interesting." Rhuddem said thoughtfully, looking at my father. "Does she know?" She asked. "Does she know about her heritage... her potential?" She looked at my father, amused. He stopped moving, stony silence._

"_Of course she doesn't." Rhuddem laughed. "Oh now, that is very, very interesting indeed." _

"_You leave her alone." My father muttered, angry. He had reached for a book, and flipped it open. He suddenly started reading in Latin, I felt a pull on my mind, a fury as she howled. She reached out a hand toward him, and a pulse went out from me. It flung the book from his hands against the wall._

_He stood, and resumed what he was saying, reciting it from memory._

_"No! No!" Rhuddem screamed at him and she advanced into the room, as she did, she reached out with some unseen force and she pulled him to us... to me... he was propelled into my outstretched hand and I felt a sickening thud as he came into contact with me. I looked down, the knife I'd been holding was now buried to the hilt in his abdomen. Hot, red blood flowed from the wound down my hands and I laughed. I couldn't stop it, I couldn't control it – I was her slave, completely at her control. Inside I felt myself scream, and keep screaming, but outside I was laughing._

_My father fell to his knees, he looked up at me, a smile on his face. _

"_You wanted him, you'll see him soon enough, witch!" He spluttered, blood coming out his mouth. "I love you Beth..I'm sorry." He said, falling down to the floor. I watched, unable to move, as the light went out of his eyes and he was gone. I screamed, but the sound just echoed in my own head. I turned around, looking about the room. My eyes were not my own. Then my gaze turned upward as I couldn't take more than a few steps. There was a symbol on the ceiling drawn in a big red circle. I didn't recognise it, but my possessor did... and there was a moment of fleeting fear that ran through me. _

"_Nooooo!" She yelled._

* * *

**UW Hospital, Madison  
**_**Present Day**_**  
**

John's voice sounded on the phone. _"This is John Winchester. I can't be reached. If this is an emergency, call my son, Dean. 866-907-3235. He can help."_

I fought back tears and spoke into the phone. "Dad... it's Beth. Uh... god I hope you get this. It's Dean. He's been injured, and uh... the doctors say there's nothing they can do." I paused, sniffing back tears. "Um, but, they don't know the things we know right? So... we're gonna do whatever it takes to get him better, me and Sam. I just, I really wanted to hear your voice, I need you tell me it's gonna be ok Dad... ok. I gotta go. Bye."

I hung up the phone and stared at it a while. It had been three days since I'd walked out of Dean's room. Dean was being the same frustrating pain in the ass he always was when he was scared, and while I spent as much time with him as I could bare – we both got to a breaking point which neither of us was ready to talk about yet. So I'd leave, and I always found myself right back here, in the chapel, surrounded by the quiet serenity of prayer, of faith.

It was dark out now, the little chapel was abandoned, except for me. No one seemed to pray anymore. The day had fallen to night, the stained glass just a mass of blackness, holding out the cold night air. A janitor had come in to turn on some more artificial candles around the room, lighting it up a little so that you could see just enough to get around – how I wanted to light real candles, but it was against hospital regulations, no open flames.

I moved to the statue of Jesus by the wall, and sat in front of it. I allowed myself a moment to breathe, just breathe. In and out, in and out, fighting the rising panic.

Someone came into the room, he sat beside me with a sigh.

"Thought I'd find you here." Sam said. I nodded.

"Joshua called. He thinks he knows a man who can help us. A faith healer, the real deal." I looked at Sam. He looked tired, drawn, and every bit as freaked out as I was. But there was something underneath it all, a quiet knowing, a determination. Stubborn. Just like his father.

"Really?" I asked, hopeful.

"Yeah. Yeah, so chin up. We're gonna find a way Beth." He promised.

Someone cleared their throat behind us, entering the chapel.

"Well, isn't this cozy." Dean said sarcastically, I spun around to see him leaning in the doorway. He was fully dressed, the dark circles under his eyes really standing out with the black hoodie he was wearing.

"Dean, what the hell?" I asked, getting up and moving over to him. "What are you doing?"

"I checked myself out." He declared, winking and pushing further into the chapel, leaning on the back of a pew and turning to look at us.

"What, are you crazy?" Sam asked, coming around to his other side.

"Well, I'm not gonna die in a hospital where the nurses aren't even hot." He quipped, looking at me. I sighed and rolled my eyes. He shrugged at Sam. Sam chuckled and took Dean by the arm, helping him to a seat.

"You know this whole I-laugh-in-the-face-of-death thing?" Sam said. "It's crap. I can see right through it."

"Yeah, whatever, dude. Have you even slept? The pair of you look worse than me." He said, looking over at me. I self-consciously ran my hands through my hair. I hadn't looked in a mirror in days, I probably looked a mess.

Sam sat down in another pew and looked at Dean. "I've been scouring the internet for the last three days. Calling every contact in Dad's journal."

"For what?" Dean asked.

"For a way to help you." I said, looking at him. He looked sceptical.

"One of Dad's friends, Joshua, he called me back." Sam said. "Told me about a guy in Nebraska. A specialist."

"You're not gonna let me die in peace, are you?" Dean whined.

"We're not going to let you die, period." I said, kneeling in front of him. I put my hands on his knees and his eyes warmed as he looked at me. He reached out a hand to brush his fingers down my cheek, I closed my eyes, treasuring the touch.

"Beth..." He said softly. "We have to talk about this sometime."

I shook my head, looking up at him resolutely. "We're going." I said, obstinate.

* * *

**Nebraska**

I pulled the car along a bumpy dirt road which led down to a large white circus tent, set up in a field. There were people making their way to the tent, treading carefully across the muddy ground. I pulled up and look out the windshield at the people going into the tent. It was overcast and bleak, everything a dreary grey, but I felt my heart leap with a little hope.

Sam got out and opened the door for Dean, who stuck his head out and looked around. His eyes fell on the sign near the tent, it read: _The Church of Roy LeGrange. Faith healer. Witness the Miracle. _I saw him grimace as he read it, but he still pulled himself out of the car, pushing Sam's feeble attempts to help away.

"I got it." Dean said angrily, pushing Sam away from him.

"Man, you are a lying bastard. Thought you said we were going to see a doctor." He glared at Sam.

"I believe I said a specialist." Sam answered with a smirk.

"Dean, this guy's supposed to be the real deal." I said, coming around to look at him.

Dean just looked at me, shaking his head. "I can't believe you brought me here to see some guy who heals people out of a tent."

An elderly woman walked past at that moment, hearing his comment. She looked at Dean and shook her umbrella. "Reverend LeGrange is a great man!" She declared before moving on.

"Yeah, that's nice." Dean grumbled, I hooked my arm through his and supported him a little, starting to move him toward the tent.

We walked past a man who was arguing with a security guard.

"I have a right to protest. This man is a fraud. And he's milking all these people out of their hard-earned money!" He was saying.

"Sir, this is a place of worship. Let's go. Move it." The guard escorted the man away as we watched.

"I take he's not part of the flock?" Dean asked sarcastically.

"When people see something they can't explain, there's always controversy." Sam said.

"Awww come on, Sam, a faith healer?" Dean whined.

"Maybe it's time to have a little faith, Dean." I said crossly.

"You know what I've got faith in? Reality. Knowing what's really going on." He answered, shaking his head at me. "Not putting my faith in something that I can't even see." I stared at him, we always clashed over this subject.

"But we do see them, Dean. How can you be a sceptic? With all the things we see everyday?" Sam asked, flashing me a sympathetic look.

I started pulling Dean toward the tent again, small steps at a time.

"Exactly." Dean said. "We see them, we know they're real."

"But if you know evil's out there, how can you not believe good's out there too?" I asked.

"Because I've seen what evil does to good people." Dean said, stopping. I sighed. He was going to fight this all the way, well, that was ok, because I could be just as stubborn as he was.

"Maybe God works in mysterious ways." A voice said from behind us.

A young woman who had been walking behind us rounded the three of us who were now standing near the door debating. She was holding an umbrella against the drizzle that was coming down, protecting her long blond hair from the rain. Dean eyed the young woman off with an appreciative look. "Maybe he does." He said smiling, she flashed him a smile back. "I think you just turned me around on the subject." He added. I rolled my eyes, incorrigible to the end too.

"Yeah, I'm sure." The woman laughed.

"I'm Dean," Dean said, holding out his hand. "This is Sam, and Beth."

"Layla," She said, taking his hand and introducing herself. "So, if you're not a believer, then why are you here?"

Dean sighed, looking at me, and then Sam. "Apparently these two believe enough for all of us." He answered, smiling gently at me. I knew he didn't believe like I did, thought I was foolish for believing. But maybe this was also his way of humouring me, and in his mind maybe he thought it would help me come to terms with his death. I was hoping that a miracle might happen when he wasn't looking.

"Come on, Layla. It's about to start." An older woman came up and put her arm around Layla as they moved past us with a smile. I pulled on Dean's arm and he allowed me to lead him into the tent.

"Well, I bet you she can work in some mysterious ways Sam." Dean said, nodding at Layla. I pinched him and he yelped, frowning weakly at me before smiling and placing a kiss on my forehead.

"Come on." I said with a half-smile, leading him inside.

The tent was packed with people from all walks of life: different ethnicities, poor and wealthy, the sickly, the aged, the young and the in between. I pushed Dean ahead of me, steering him toward the front. He tilted his head toward a security camera in the corner of the tent and leaned back into me to whisper. "Yeah, peace, love and trust all over." I snorted and gestured for him to keep moving.

Sam looked at the security camera and shrugged. Dean tried to take a seat near the back, but I gave him a little shove, sending Sam a look that made him frown. He put his arm around Dean and guided him further into the tent.

"Come on." He said.

"Don't! What are you doing?" Dean asked, looking back. "Let's sit here."

"We're sitting up the front." I said, hands firmly on his back while Sam pulled him. _Seriously, _I thought, _you'd think we were dragging him to see a the making of the _Titanic _on the big screen. _

"What? Why?" Dean asked, struggling a little with us.

"Come on." Sam said, moving him up the aisle.

"Oh come on guys." Dean growled. He stumbled a little and Sam reached for him.

"You all right?" Sam asked, looking concerned.

"This is ridiculous!" Dean said, slapping Sam's hand away. He straightened up and sighed. "I'm good dude, get off me." He didn't say anything about my hand at his back so I left it there.

"Let's go." I said, pointing to three empty seats behind Layla and the woman with her.

"Perfect." Sam said and went in first. Dean tried sneak in after him, but I stopped him, putting a hand on his arm. He looked at me questioning, and I shook my head.

"You take the aisle." I instructed, and he rolled his eyes at me.

"Seriously?" He asked, shaking his head. I squeezed past him and sat next to Sam, motioning with my eyes to Dean that he needed to sit the hell down before I kicked his ass. He sank into the chair next to me with a sigh.

"You know, you and me, we need to have a serious talk when this is all over, start facing reality." He whispered fiercely at me. "You gotta get a grip!"

"I'm doing this for you, shut up!" I whispered back, looking him in the eyes. He rolled his eyes and looked up at the stage.

"Whatever." He muttered, earning a glare from me and a snort from Sam.

The tent fell silent as a blind man wearing sunglasses came up to the stage. He was helped to the lectern by a woman.

"Each morning." The man started, "My wife Sue Ann, reads me the news. Never seems good, does it?" The crowd agreed with him, some people shouting out. "Seems like there's always someone committing some immoral, unspeakable act."

I allowed my eyes to roam over the crowded room, taking in faces, objects... I took particular notice of the altar that was set up on stage. I saw many altars when I went to different churches, different religious areas. They always, always said something about the people who were setting them up. This one was very simple, a couple of religious books, and an old wooden cross, it was topped by a smaller cross in a circle. I gazed at it curiously, it looked familiar, but I couldn't remember why.

"But I say to you, _God is watching." _Roy said, to the murmurs of the crowd.

"Yes he is!" A woman next to me called out.

"_God rewards the good, and He punishes the corrupt!" _Roy stated to more cheering and murmuring, everyone around me was nodding in agreement. I glanced at Sam and he shrugged.

"It is the Lord who does the healing here friends. The Lord who guides me in choosing who to heal by helping me see into people's hearts." Roy continued, he looked genuinely caring, smiling as he talked, a gentle compassionate look on his face.

"Yeah, and into their wallets." Dean said quietly to me.

"You think so, young man?" Roy said, looking directly at Dean with his blind eyes.

The crowd fell silent, eyes turning to us. Dean shifted uncomfortably under the attention.

"Sorry." He said sheepishly.

"No, no. Don't be. Just watch what you say around a blind man, we've got real sharp ears." Roy said, earning some laughter from the crowd.

"What's your name son?" Roy asked.

Dean hesitated, and then cleared his throat. "Dean." He answered.

"Dean." Roy repeated, nodding to himself. "I want – I want you to come up here with me."

The crowd started clapping and a few cheers went up. I noticed Layla and the woman with her stiffen, they weren't happy.

Sue Ann moved to the centre of the stage, waving Dean up, smiling.

Dean shook his head. "No, it's ok." He declined. I glared at him.

"What are you doing?!" I asked urgently.

"You've come here to be healed, haven't ya?" Roy asked patiently, he was moving his head around listening for a response.

Dean hesitated. "Well, yeah, but ahhhh... maybe you should just pick someone else." Sam and I exchanged glances, I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest it was beating so fast. The crowd started clapping loudly around us and it felt like thunder, I felt my self-control starting to slip.

"Oh no. I didn't pick you, Dean, the Lord did." Roy said, nodding.

The crowd started to get more excited, calling out agreement, encouraging Dean to get up on stage.

"Get up there!" I said, giving him a shove. "Dammit Dean!"

Dean looked at me and reluctantly stood up, moving to the stage. I grabbed Sam's hand and he squeezed it, flashing me an excited smile. _Please God, let this be real. _Sue Ann moved to assist, standing next to Roy.

"You ready?" Roy asked, expectantly.

"Look, no disrespect, but ahhh, I'm not exactly a believer." He confessed, looking around the room.

Roy just smiled at him. "You will be, son. You will be."

"Pray with me friends." Roy said and everyone in the crowd stood with their hands in the air, many of them joining hands together. Dean was looking uncomfortable, eyes moving around the room.

Roy lifted his hands in the air, and after a few moments placed one hand on Dean's shoulder. I held my breath, not knowing what was going to happen, but praying for a miracle just the same. Roy moved his hand to the side of Dean's head, resting it there. Dean looked at me, a strange look in his eyes, resigned, but maybe a glimmer of hope.

"All right now. All right now." Roy muttered, mostly to himself, I could barely hear it, wouldn't have if the room hadn't been completely silent at this stage, waiting.

Dean blinked a few times, looking dizzy, then he fell to his knees. Sam's hand released mine and he looked at Dean concerned. I was moving into the aisle, but Sam grabbed my arm, shaking his head. Dean was wavering, kneeling before Roy, who still had his hand on Dean's head.

"All right then." Roy said.

Dean blinked, and then his eyes rolled into the back of his head, he fell to the ground. Now I was moving, straight for him.

"Dean!" I ran up to the stage, Sam right behind me. The crowd started clapping behind us but I only had eyes for the man on the floor. I reached him, heart racing and grabbed the front of his jacket, pulling him up slightly. "Dean!"

Dean's eyes burst open at that moment and he gasped, grabbing my arm. "Say something!" Sam said from behind me, moving in to support Dean by his shoulders. Dean looked groggy, finding it hard to focus on the people around him, and then his eyes widened as he looked over my shoulder at Roy. I glanced back but all I could see was the preacher, standing above us, his hands still raised in the air with a smile on his face.

"Dean, are you ok?" I asked, he still hadn't spoken. He looked at me, eyes focusing, and he smiled.

"Hey, there you are..." He said, as if seeing me for the first time. I gingerly touched his face, it might have been my imagination but it looked like the colour was returning to his face.

"Are you ok?" Sam asked, repeating my question.

"Yeah... yeah. Get me up." Dean said, and Sam helped him get to his feet. We looked around and the entire tent was clapping and cheering for Dean. I found myself gazing at the cross on the altar, silently praying that it had worked, that we'd found the miracle we were looking for.

* * *

**Baraboo, Wisconsin  
****_9 years ago_**

_I felt raw. The screaming inside my head was my own, and it echoed like a big empty hall. I don't know how long I'd been trapped, 'we' had been pacing for hours, back and forth between the boundaries of the circle that was drawn on the roof, but I don't think it had been that long. For some reason 'we' couldn't move beyond it. My father's body had fallen out of the circle, the knife still stuck in him, she couldn't reach him and this seemed to be enraging her even more. She paced like a wild tiger inside a barred cage. _

_I found myself withdrawing further and further within, the sharpness of my perception getting misty and faded as I tried to shut out what was happening to me. When 'we' heard the doors slam from a car outside, I felt a stab of panic wash over me, and then it was replaced with the darkness, the fire that burned inside of her. She stilled herself, watching the door, waiting. _

_There was the sound of the front door being opened, and two men entered, guns drawn. An older man who 'we' recognised, and I realised that I knew of him because of her. He was the reason she'd been sent here, besides a personal grudge she'd had against my father. The man was tall, unshaven by a few days with a dark stubble over a square jawline. Short brown hair, piercing dark eyes. He was all business. _

_The younger man with him looked to be barely older than me, same jawline as the older man, but with brown spikey hair that was mussed up, haunting hazel eyes looked back at me as they entered the room, gun drawn._

_"You're too late John." Said Rhuddem._

_The older man stepped forward, steely eyes coming to meet mine. His eyes flicked to the ceiling and the painting that was keeping her – me – trapped. He inclined his head, a glint to his eye. "Get out of the girl." He said. _

"_No, I don't think so," She said to him. "I know a few people down below that would like to get a hold of this pretty little thing... now we know about her." _

"_I'm afraid I can't let that happen." He said, calmly, assuredly. _

"_Heh! You can't hold me here forever." She snarled. The man just looked at me, unfazed._

_The younger boy stood to attention at John's voice. "Get the journal." The boy, disappeared out the front door._

_John's eyes narrowed, watching me with discernment. He moved around the circle, coming to my father's body, and knelt down to inspect him. He pulled the knife out of my father, it was covered in blood. I – she smirked at him. _

"_Go ahead John." Rhuddem said. "Use it." She went up to the edge of the circle, raising her arms, baring her – my – body in an easy target._

_John assessed my possessor, holding the knife and turning it over in his hands. The boy returned, handing an old leather-bound journal to the man, who flipped through it to a page._

"_Time to meet your maker, demon." John said, looking at me. I felt my head tilt in amusement, until he started reading something in Latin._

"_Regna terrae...cantate Deo, psallite Domino—qui fertis ascendit, super caelum..."_

_I felt a tug, like something hooked into the being inside of me, and she struggled to hold on. _

"_You're leaving her one way or the other." John said, looking at her, pausing. "Now why are you here?"_

"_That's above your pay grade John Winchester." She spat at him._

_"...caeli ad Orientem. Ecce dabit..." John was reading, speaking quickly._

_The demon – which is what it had been called – tried to hold on. She screamed in anger at them, and the boy stared in shock at me. Suddenly, she bit my arm, laughing and moaning at the same time. Blood pooled in the wound, and she caught some of it in my other hand. She glared at John, daring him to come closer._

_"You better kill her, John. Because pretty soon all of Hell is going to know about her, and they'll be coming." Rhuddem looked amused, and then started to speak into the blood, saying a chant in a language I didn't recognise._

_John's eyes widened, and he started to read faster from the journal. "... voci suae vocum virtutis tribuite virtutem deo" Suddenly I felt a wave of light wash over me, and she was torn from my body in a scream. _

_I felt myself falling, slipping to the ground when someone caught me, strong arms encircled me and guided me to the ground, my head resting on his arm. I looked up and saw that the young man had caught me._

"_Hey..." He said gently, looking at me with concern. I had just enough presence of mind to notice those hazel eyes... before the darkness claimed me and I passed out._

* * *

**Nebraska  
**_**Present Day. **_

Sam was walking around the room excited, looking at his brother. Dean looked so much better than he had – his skin had regained it's colour, the dark circles under his eyes were gone, he could breathe better, and he was walking without needing assistance. He sat on the edge of the examination table in the doctor's office looking troubled and unhappy, staring at the floor. Sam missed this and continued his excited chatter.

"So you really feel ok?" Sam asked, once more.

"I feel fine, Sam." Dean replied, not looking up until the doctor came into the room.

She entered in her white doctor's coat, carrying paperwork, and walked up to Dean who didn't move.

"Well, according to all your tests there's nothing wrong with your heart. No sign there ever was." She said. Dean looked up at her in surprise, glancing over at me. "Not that a man your age should be having heart troubles," She said, glancing at the paperwork again. "But, still it's strange, it does happen."

"What do you mean, strange?" Dean asked, suspicious.

"Well, just yesterday, a young guy like you, twenty-seven, athletic. Out of nowhere, heart attack." She said crossing her arms in front of her and frowning.

Dean looked troubled at this and looked down at his hands. "Thanks Doc." He said quietly.

"No problem." She said, smiling and leaving.

"That's odd." Dean said when she was gone, looking over at Sam.

"Maybe it's a coincidence. People's hearts give out all the time, man." Sam said, excusing the story.

"No, they don't." Dean said.

Sam looked frustrated, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "Look, Dean, do we really have to look this one in the mouth? Why can't we just be thankful that the guy saved your life and move on?" He asked.

"Because I can't shake this feeling, that's why." Dean replied standing up to face Sam.

"What feeling?" I asked, stepping up to them both and resting my hand on Dean's arm.

Dean looked down at me, then turned to gather his jacket off the bench.

"When I was healed, I just... I felt wrong. I felt cold." He shrugged into his jacket and turned to look at us. "And for a second... I saw someone. This, uh, this old man. And I'm telling you guys, it was a spirit." I frowned, Dean looked really upset by this, it was clearly troubling him.

"But if there was something there, Dean, I think I would've seen it too. I mean, I've been seeing an awful lot of things lately." Sam said, brushing off his comment.

Dean looked angry. "Well, excuse me, psychic wonder." He said, sighing. "But you're just gonna need a little faith on this one. I've been hunting long enough not to trust a feeling like this."

I nodded, looking at him. "So what do you want to do?" I asked.

"I want Sam to go check out the heart attack guy. You and I are going to visit the Rev." He answered.

* * *

**Roy LeGrange's House**

We were sitting on the couch opposite the Reverend while Sue Ann was filling up glasses of iced tea. Everyone looked relaxed, except for Dean, who was fidgeting in his seat. I gave him a questioningly look and he frowned at me before settling down. His hand grasped mine. I smiled at Sue Ann, and looked over at the Reverend.

"I just... I just can't put into words how grateful I am..." I started. "That you were able to help Dean." I said, squeezing his hand. Sue Ann and Roy both smiled.

"I feel great." Dean added. "Just trying to, you know, make sense of what happened." He said, honestly.

"A miracle is what happened. Well, miracles come so often around Roy." Sue Ann answered, smiling. Dean nodded at her, then looked at Roy.

"When did they start? The miracles?" He asked.

Roy looked in our direction. "Woke up one morning, stone blind. Doctors figured out I had cancer. Told me I had maybe a month. So, uh, we prayed for a miracle. I was weak, but I told Sue Ann, 'You just keep right on praying.'" He paused to smile in his wife's direction. "I went into a coma. Doctors said I wouldn't wake up, but I did. And the cancer was gone."

He reached up to remove his sunglasses, his eyes were faded and there was no recognition of anything behind them. "If it wasn't for these eyes, no one would believe I'd ever had it." He said smiling.

"And suddenly you could heal people?" I asked.

"I discovered it afterward, yes. God's blessed me in many ways." Roy said, nodding, putting his sunglasses back on.

"And his flock just swelled overnight. And this is just the beginning." Sue Ann said proudly.

"Can I ask you one last question?" Dean asked, looking curious.

"Of course you can." Roy said.

Dean licked his lips, glancing at me, and then at the reverend. "Why? Why me?" He asked. "Out of all the sick people, why save me?" There was a disbelief to his voice, one that said he didn't believe he deserved to be saved, that he wasn't worthy. I looked down at his hand in mine and bit my lip.

"Well, like I said before, the Lord guides me. I looked into your heart, and you just stood out from all the rest." Roy answered.

"What did you see in my heart?" Dean asked.

Roy didn't hesitate. "A young man with an important purpose. A job to do. And it isn't finished."

Dean looked at me surprised, and I gave him an encouraging smile, nodding. While Dean didn't believe he was important, it was clear as day that he had a destiny, a purpose, and was being shown this.

We ran into Layla as we were leaving, she and her mother were coming in.

"Dean, Beth, hey." Layla said, smiling.

"Hey." Dean answered, nodding. I smiled at her.

"How you feeling?" She asked.

"I feel good. Cured, I guess." Dean answered with a shrug. "What are you doing here?"

"You know, my mom, she wanted to talk to the reverend." Layla answered, looking back at her mother who was coming up behind her.

Sue Ann came out on to the porch, and saw Layla. She stopped forward. "Layla?"

Layla turned to Sue Ann and smiled. "Yes, I'm here again." She said softly. Sue Ann took her hands and looked apologetic.

"I'm sorry, but Roy is resting. He won't be seeing anyone else right now." Sue Ann said.

Layla's mother stepped up on to the porch. "Sue Ann please. This is our sixth time, he's got to see us." She said frustrated.

"Roy is well aware of Layla's situation. And he very much wants to help just as soon as the Lord allows. Have faith, Mrs Rourke." Sue Ann answered, patting Layla on the shoulder tenderly and turning to go back inside the house.

Dean and I hadn't moved, watching this exchange with interest. Mrs Rourke turned and saw us. She frowned at Dean. "Why are you still even here? You got what you wanted." She uttered at him.

"Mom. Stop." Layla said.

She turned a troubled look to her daughter. "No, Layla, this is too much. We've been to every single service. If Roy would stop choosing these strangers over you. Strangers who don't even believe." She looked Dean in the eye. "I just can't pray any harder." She said.

"Layla, what's wrong?" I asked. Layla sighed, hesitating. "I have this thing..."

"It's a brain tumour. It's inoperable. In six months, the doctors say..." Mrs Rourke couldn't finish her sentence, choking on emotion. Layla put her hand on her mother's shoulder, comforting.

"I'm sorry." Dean said.

"It's ok." Layla replied with a smile.

"No. It isn't." Mrs Rourke said, staring into her daughter's eyes. She looked sharply at Dean. "Why do you deserve to live more than my daughter?" She said in a harsh tone before walking away. Layla took a shaky breath and then followed her down the stairs.

I looked at Dean, at a loss for words. He looked at Layla, and then the house thoughtfully before turning back to me, pulling me into a hug, resting his chin on my head.

* * *

**Baraboo, Wisconsin  
9 years ago**

_When I woke up, I was on the couch in the study, the first thing I saw was my father's body. "No..." I crawled toward him. "Noooo!" I reached him, touching his cold body, his blood-spattered face. "Dad..." Tears fell as I cradled his head in my lap, all the screams and the sorrow that I hadn't been able to express when she was in me came in waves now. I couldn't stop screaming, stop sobbing._

_Then I felt strong hands take me by the shoulders, lifting me into his arms as I sobbed. John. He carried me into the living room, putting me on the couch. He crouched in front of me, holding my face in his hands gently._

_"Elizabeth." He said, and I looked at him – not really seeing him, but knowing he was there. "It's going to be all right. We're going to help." He promised, and I nodded. "My name is John, and I'm a friend of your father's. He called me here, when he knew it was coming for him. He called me here for you, Elizabeth. To protect you." He looked conflicted and grieved, like he'd just lost an old friend._

_I looked at him, not understanding. I shook my head. "I don't understand."_

"_You will, in time." He said gently. "Right now, we need to see to your father. Will you be ok here? Just for a little bit." I looked at him, nodding numbly. He moved away from me, and I looked at my hands. It hit me all of a sudden, they were covered in blood – my father's blood, my blood – I felt the bile rising in my throat. I ran for the bathroom, making it to the toilet just in time to throw up. _

_I was scrubbing furiously at my hands with a nail brush, trying to get all the blood off. Tears fell as I tried to process what was happening. What was going to happen to me now... my family was dead. I rubbed them raw, they were so bloody. Hot, hot water almost scorched them, I didn't care, I couldn't get it all out, I had to scrub them... they were so bloody, they were red..._

_A hand reached out from beside me and gently took my hands in his, pulling them away from the water. The other hand turned the tap off and I stood there, gasping, trying to understand. I looked up and my eyes met his hazel orbs. Self-assured, but concerned. "I can't... I can't get it out." I whispered, tears threatening to fall again._

_He nodded, and brought his other hand over to hold both mine. They weren't soft, like I expected, they were rough and felt real against my own soft skin. I stared at those hands holding mine as if they were a lifeline. I slowed my breathing, pushing the images of my father to the back of my mind. I didn't know these people, and yet, I trusted them. They had found me, they had saved me. I didn't even know who they were._

"_Who are you?" I asked, looking up at him. He smiled, carefree, a little cocky._

"_I'm Dean." He answered with a twinkle to his eye and a warm smile. I felt my heart skip a beat with that smile, I suddenly realised that my whole world was about to change. _

* * *

**Motel Room  
****Present Day****  
**

Sam was on the laptop when we got back to the motel. Dean threw the keys on the bed and shrugged out of his jacket, tossing it on the bed. Sam glanced over at us, an apprehensive look on his face.

"What did you find out?" I asked, sitting down next to him.

Sam turned his troubled eyes to look at Dean. "I'm sorry." He said quietly.

Dean looked over. "Sorry about what?"

"Marshall Hall died at 4:17." He answered.

Dean stopped, looking stunned. "The exact time I was healed."

"Yeah," Sam said. "So I put together a list of everyone Roy's healed, six people over the last year, and I cross-checked them with the local obits. Every time someone was healed, someone else died. And each time, the victim died of the same symptom LeGrange was healing at the time." Sam looked resigned and sad as he handed Dean a stack of print outs from the computer.

"So, someone's healed of cancer, someone else dies of cancer?" I asked.

"Somehow. LeGrange... he's trading a life for another." Sam said, nodding.

"Wait, wait, wait. So, Marshall Hall died to save me?" Dean said, looking angry.

Sam looked upset, struggling to find words.

"Dean, the guy probably would have died anyway. And someone else would have been healed." I said quietly.

Dean stood up, a shielded look in his eyes. "You never should have brought me here." He said to us, standing up and walking across the room.

"Dean, we were just trying to save your life." I said, standing up and turning to him.

"But, some guy is dead now because of me." Dean said loudly, the guilt clearly showing in his voice.

"We didn't know." Sam said quietly, sadly.

Dean paused, looking from Sam to me. He pursed his lips and looked down.

"The thing I don't understand, is how is Roy doing it?" Sam asked. "How's he trading a life for a life?"

"Oh he's not doing it." Dean said, starting to pace. "Something else is doing it for him."

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking up.

"The old man I saw on stage." Dean explained, shaking his head. "I didn't want to believe it, but deep down I knew."

"You knew what? What are you talking about?" I queried, standing up to stop him from walking around, looking him in the eye.

"There's only one thing that can give and take life like that." Dean said. I raised my shoulders in a confused shrug.

"We're dealing with a reaper." Dean declared, looking at me.

* * *

**Wisconsin  
**_**9 years ago**_**  
**

_It had been three days. Three days since I'd met this strange duo. I was sitting with the youngest of the Winchester men in the living room. Sam. He was chatting to me about his latest school project. John and Dean were in my father's study, John had said something about there being some things my father had for him. I'd just waved them in there, I didn't care. Now I decided to go and see what it was they were taking._

_I stopped at the door, realising John was on the phone speaking to someone._

_"James." He was saying. "He's dead. We have to think of Elizabeth now. Where will she go?"_

_I held my breath, who was he talking to? I frowned, thinking hard, and then realised. My Uncle Jimmy lived in Illinois. But he wasn't that much older than me, maybe by ten years, the son from my grandmother's second marriage. We never saw him, my Dad and me. I didn't know anything about him._

"_Well you have to, I promised Patrick, someone needs to watch over her." John was saying. I held my breath._

"_James..." His voice was raised, and then he stopped talking altogether. I realised that the phone conversation had ended and it hadn't gone the way he'd been expecting._

_A voice cleared behind me, and I jumped, startled. Dean stood behind me, an amused look on his face. "What ya doing?" He asked, as if he didn't already know._

"_I just... I want to know what happened to me. What's going on?" I whispered. Dean frowned steering me back into the living room, a hand on my arm._

_"You don't know?" He asked._

"_No!" I said, crossing my arms in front of my body. "All I remember is being in my room and then... and then... that... _thing_ was inside of me. Talking in my head. And I couldn't move! I couldn't control my own body. And then I _stabbed my own father!" _I withdrew, fresh tears coming into my eyes. _

_Dean looked at me, as if appraising what I had said. He looked conflicted, frowning at me, and then he sighed. "Better you don't know." He said, walking away._

_"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, following him into the living room. Sam looked up from the book he was reading._

_"Nothin'" Dean muttered. "Shit happens, you don't want to know what's out there, trust me." He looked at me sadly, and I shook my head._

_"God I'm so sick of all these bullshit secrets!" I cried out, walking out of the room leaving them behind._

_I was huddled on the back step, my legs pulled up to my chest, arms wrapped around to protect me from the cold. I heard the door open and Sam stepped out on the porch, looking conflicted. His eyes were chocolate brown and soft, he had shaggy brown hair that needed a hair cut. He smiled when he saw me. He glanced back into the kitchen and then closed the door behind him. "There's a few things you should know." He said sinking down next to me._

_A short while later I was sitting in stunned silence, having just learned that the world was a whole lot bigger than I had thought. I couldn't believe what Sam had just told me, about creatures in the night, about demons..._

_I looked at him, this young man who was so much older and wiser than his years portrayed. He'd seen a lot in his life, yet he was still so innocent, with an optimism that just shouldn't have been there for this young thirteen year old. He sat quietly, looking out over the back yard, hands shoved into the pockets against the cold. "And so... demons they can be sent back to Hell...which is what Dad did..." Sam was saying. _

"_Sam." John's voice sounded behind us. Sam startled a little, looking up guiltily at his father standing in the doorway._

"_Sam, we talked about this." John said. _

"_Look, Dad. She needs to know, she's not stupid! She's just seen what's left of her family murdered – don't you think she deserves to know why?" He asked, defiantly._

"_To do what with this information?" John asked, his voice very quiet._

_Sam paused, and then looked at his father. "So she can use it. So she can become one of us." He said resolutely. John shook his head. I looked at my feet, it feel surreal being spoken of like I wasn't even there._

"_No, no Sam," John said. "You have no idea what you're talking about, it's too dangerous." _

_"Shouldn't she get to be the judge of that? Come on Dad... you've seen what she knows, her dad was clearly training her, even if she doesn't know it. She's a genius at scripture!" I looked up at that comment, frowning. What was he talking about? _

"_We've been over this Sam!" John said angrily, and stormed off into the house._

_Sam looked annoyed, standing up and kicking at the step and walking off into the back yard. I frowned, shaking my head trying to clear it. I hesitated, but followed the older man into the house. I found him in the study, leaning heavily on the desk._

"_Mr Winchester..." I started._

"_John." Came the fast correction._

"_John." I said, smiling. "Look, I don't know why this has happened to me. How do I explain to people that I stabbed my own father? I don't have anywhere to go." I stopped, the reality of things settling in, Dean was standing in the corner looking at a book and he peered up at me when I said this, a frown creasing his brow._

_John looked at me. "Just how much has Sam told you?" He asked._

"_Enough to know I can't stay here. Enough that I know my world won't ever be the same." John regarded me in silence, his face not revealing anything of what he was thinking. I glanced over at Dean, he was looking at me with intrigue._

"_I heard you on the phone with my uncle..." I said quietly. John's eyebrows knitted together in concern. "He doesn't want me?" _

"_You have to understand, your father and he weren't exactly on speaking terms." John confessed. I looked down at my hands, suddenly lost for words, fresh tears in my eyes._

_"She should come with us Dad." Sam said, stepping into the room._

"_You've done enough Sam..." John said angrily. Sam frowned and crossed his arm, scowling._

"_I promised your father I would take care of you." John said, looking at me. I nodded, eyes widening at this revelation."But I don't even know where to start with that right now, you're only fifteen!" He said._

"_Let me come with you." I asked, looking at him. He looked torn. "Please, I don't have anywhere else to go." I said. _

_Dean frowned, and shook his head. "What is she nuts?" He asked, John looked over at him. _

"_You'd be on the run all the time, skipping from school to school, it's no life for a young lady." John said, looking at me._

"_My father has moved me around every year since my mother died, that's not exactly new to me." I answered with a sigh. He looked surprised at this and he seemed to consider what I'd said. Dean had come to stand next to his father._

"_You can't seriously be thinking about taking her with us." He whispered to his father. I scowled at him, he glared back at me._

_John looked between the two of us and then he left the room without saying anything._

_Dean sighed and looked at me. "You don't want this, you don't want to come with us." He said to me. I reached over and absently touched the pendant around his neck, it was gold-toned, brass, maybe – a strange looking face with horns and large ears. He watched me with those bright hazel eyes as I brushed my thumb across it, curious. I looked up into his eyes, lost._

_"Well what would you have me do?" I asked. He shrugged. I looked at the pendant again. "You know I was raised to believe in an almighty God. A Lord who loves and protects me. What I don't understand is why this is happening to me. Why do I deserve to live when my father doesn't? Why not me instead of my mother who was killed in that car crash? I just … I don't know why this is happening, and I don't know what to do..." My voice broke and I choked back a sob._

_"You don't want this." Dean said to me, looking troubled, taking the pendant from my hand and brushing past me as he left the room._

* * *

**Motel Room, Nebraska  
**_**Present Day**_**  
**

"You really think it's _the _Grim Reaper? Like, angel of death, collect your soul, the whole deal?" Sam asked, looking at Dean across the table we were all seated at, research strewn all over the surface.

"No no no, not _the _reaper, _a _reaper." Dean said, looking up from the paper he was reading. "There's reaper law in pretty much every culture on earth, it goes by a hundred different names, it's possible that there's more than one of them." Dean said.

"But you said you saw a dude in a suit." Sam said, elbow on the table and head resting in his hand. He looked sceptical.

"What, you think he should've been working the whole black robe thing?" Dean asked, raising his eyebrow. "You said it yourself that the clocked stopped right? Reapers stop time."

"And you can only see a reaper when they're coming at you, which is why Dean saw it and we didn't." I said thoughtfully.

"Maybe." Sam said, glancing at me.

"There's nothing else it could be Sam." Dean said determined. "The question is, how is Roy controlling the damn thing?"

We all fell silent, thinking about this. It was no easy feat to control a force of nature such as death, it would take some serious black magic.

"That cross." I said suddenly, remembering it from the altar.

"What?" Dean asked. I got up and looked through my backpack, pulling out a tarot deck and flipping through the cards.

"There was this cross, I noticed it in the church and I knew I had seen it before." I found what I was looking for with an exclamation and held it up for them to see.

The boys leaned forward to look at the card I was holding in my hand.

"A tarot?" Dean asked, taking the card from me – it was of Death, and it had the exact same cross on it that had been on the altar at Roy's.

"It makes sense. Tarot dates back to the early christian era right, when some priests were still using magic. A few of them veered into the dark stuff... necromancy, how to push death away... how to cause it." I said looking at him.

"So Roy's using black magic to bind the reaper?" Dean asked.

"Well if he is, he's riding the whirlwind. It would be like putting a dog leash on a great white." Sam said grimly. Dean stood up and put his coffee cup in the sink, leaning back to look at us. "We have to stop Roy."

"How?" Sam asked.

"You know how." Dean said solemnly.

"Wait, what the hell are you talking about Dean, we can't kill Roy." I said, standing up and walking over to him.

"The guy's playing God, he's deciding who lives and who dies. That's a monster in my book." Dean said, giving us a look that chilled me to the bone. I frowned and glanced at Sam, shaking my head, the realisation of what he was saying setting in.

"No, we're not killing a human being Dean." Sam said looking stunned.

"We do that and we're no better than he is." I said throwing my hands in the air.

Dean paused to look at us both then sighed.

"OK. We can't kill Roy, but we can't kill death. Any bright ideas then?" He asked.

I looked at Sam and he deliberated, thinking about the question.

"OK... uh.. if Roy's using some kind of black spell on the reaper, we gotta... figure out what it is." Sam said, shrugging.

"And how to break it." I added, biting my lip. Dean nodded.

* * *

**Outside Church Tent**

Dean pulled the car to a stop in the muddy field near the tent.

"If Roy's using a spell, there might be a spell book." I said, getting out and coming around to join Dean.

"See if you can find it," Dean said looking at his watch. "Hurry up too, the service starts in fifteen minutes. I'll try to stall Roy." He nodded at Sam and me, and we headed toward the house, all three of us passing the protester from earlier who was handing out flyers to the people going to the tent.

"Roy LeGrange is a fraud. He's no healer." He said.

"Amen Brother." Dean said taking a flyer and walking toward the tent.

"You keep up the good work." Sam said with a smile, patting him on the shoulder, much to the man's surprise. I laughed and headed toward the house with Sam.

We hid around the side of the porch and waited as Sue Ann and another man escorted Roy down to the tent, once they were gone we crept to an open window, climbing in through it, starting to search the house. We were in the library, an old room, half covered in wooden panels, the other half in dated wallpaper. Sam was looking at the bookshelves and I was flipping through the books on the desk.

Sam pulled a book off the shelf and flipped through it, shrugging. Then he looked up again and spotted something else, he reached up and pulled a smaller book out from behind where the other had been. He threw me a glance and I came to join him, there was a picture of a skeleton reaper inside the cover, and on another page we found the picture of the cross from the altar.

"Interesting." I said. Sam flipped further and a few newspaper articles fell out of the book. They were about the people who had died.

"He's picking people who he thinks are immoral... look at this, a gay teacher, abortion rights activist..." I said, reading through the articles. Sam nodded, pulling out a third clipping.

"Guess who his next victim is." He said grimly. I looked at the photo in the article, it was of the protester, Wright, outside.

Dean answered his phone on the first ring. "What have you got?" He asked.

"Roy's choosing victims he sees as immoral. And we think we know who's next on his list, remember that protester?" I asked.

"What, the guy in the parking lot?" Dean whispered.

"Yeah. Yeah, we'll find him. But you can't let Roy heal anyone, all right?" I said. He hung up on me and I looked at Sam, he was already heading for the door.

We started searching the car park as soon as we were outside. Sam took one side, and I took another. Sam ran down behind a bus, and I heard a cry.

"Help!" It was faint, I spun around looking for the direction it had come from.

I saw Sam sprint across the field to where Wright was cringing between a couple of cars. I hurried to catch them. Sam was pushing the man behind him, looking wildly at nothing. The man was terrified, pointing at something we couldn't see.

"It's right there!" He was saying. Sam pulled the man behind him and ran. My phone rang and I answered it.

"I did it, I stopped Roy." Dean's voice said on the other side. I looked at Sam and Wright, who had paused a few cars down. Suddenly Wright fell to the ground, Sam looked panicked.

"Dean, it didn't work. The reaper's still coming!" I cried, running toward Sam.

Dean argued with me. "I'm telling you, I'm telling you it didn't work. Roy must not be the one controlling this thing, he's on the ground..." I said, breathing heavily.

"Then who the hell is?" Dean asked, and then there was a pause on the phone.

"Dean?" I asked, looking up at the tent where people were exiting enmasse.

"Sue Ann." I heard him mutter and he hung up. I ran for the tent, Wright was still on the ground, his breathing ragged and terrified, Sam stayed with him.

I ran into the tent in time to see Dean grab Sue Ann's hand, she was holding something. She looked startled, tucking what looked like an amulet into her blouse.

"Help! Help me!" She cried out, looking at him with a cold stare.

Dean backed up a step, then there were two security guards accosting him. She narrowed her eyes at us as they manhandled Dean, pushing him toward the front of the tent, I followed. Dean shook the guards off him and took my arm as we got outside, glaring at them. Sam was helping Wright to stand up. Sue Ann came out of the tent and looked at Dean.

"I just don't understand. After everything we've done for you. After Roy healed you. I'm just very very disappointed Dean." She said looking at him with a coldness that belied the betrayal she was trying to sell to the bystanders.

Dean just stared at her with his stony silent look, I was gaping at her, unable to hide my disbelief.

"You can let him go. I'm not gonna press charges. The Lord will deal with him as he sees fit." Sue Ann said, something in her eyes was resolute, fanatical.

The security guard turned to Dean."We catch you around here again son, we'll put the fear of God into you, you understand?" He said threateningly.

"Yes sir, fear of God. God it." Dean said sarcastically, flashing him a grin.

The guards gave him a push and I felt a hand grab me from beside. I turned and it was Layla, looking at us both.

"Why would you do that? It could have been my only chance." She said, looking at us not comprehending. I realised with a sadness that it had been her that Roy had called to the stage for a healing.

"He's not a healer." Dean said, looking at her.

"He healed you." She said, shaking her head.

"I know it doesn't seem fair, and I wish I could explain. But Roy is not the answer, I'm sorry." He said looking sad.

Layla shook her head softly, looking at me and then Dean. "Good bye Dean." She said softly, turning and walking away.

Dean looked up to the sky, sighing, putting his arm around me. I wrapped my arm around his waist, my hand on his chest as I leaned in to him. Layla turned back to look at us.

"I wish you luck. I really do." She said honestly.

Dean stiffened. "Same to you." He answered. She smiled sadly and turned to walk away again.

"She deserves it a lot more than me." He said softly to me. I look up, tears in my eyes and gently patted his chest a couple of times, frowning at him. He looked at me and smiled, leaning down to place a kiss on my forehead. "Come on." He whispered and pulled me toward where Sam was waiting for us.

Layla's mother was talking to Roy and Sue Ann, Sam was listening to their conversation as we walked up.

"Private session tonight, no interruptions. I give you my word, I'll heal your daughter." We heard Roy promise.

"Thank you reverend. God bless you." Mrs Rourke said. Dean frowned.

* * *

**Motel**

Sam was sitting on the bed looking dejected. "So Roy really believes." He said, looking at Dean who was pacing the room.

"I don't think he has any idea what his wife's doing." Dean said, looking out the window, agitated.

"Well, we found this." Sam said, holding up the book from the study. "It was hidden in their library. It's ancient. Written by a priest who went dark side. There's a binding spell in here for trapping a reaper."

"Must be a hell of a spell." I said, sitting next to him and looking at the book.

"Yeah. You gotta build a black altar with seriously dark stuff. Bones, human blood. To cross a line like that, a preacher's wife...black magic, murder, evil." His voice trailed off. I took in a shaky breath, looking at Dean. I knew that kind of line, I'd struggled with it all week.

"Desperate." I said softly, looking down at my hands. The boys both looked at me. "Her husband was dying, she didn't have anything to save him. She was using the binding spell to keep the reaper away from Roy."

"Cheating death, literally." Sam said, nodding.

"Yeah, but Roy's alive, so why is she still using the spell?" Dean asked.

"To do right. To force the reaper to kill people she thinks are immoral." I said.

Dean rolled his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. "May God save us from half the people who think they're doing God's work." He sighed.

"We gotta break that binding spell." Sam said, flipping through the book. Dean came over and looked down, Sam had the page open to the picture of the cross.

"You know, Sue Ann had a coptic cross like this. When she dropped it, the reaper backed off." Dean said.

"The amulet..." I said, Dean nodded.

"So you think we have to find the cross or destroy the altar?" Sam asked.

"Maybe both." Dean said. "Whatever we do we better do it soon, or he's healing Layla tonight."

* * *

**LeGrange Church**

Dean shut the lights off on the Impala and rolled to a stop. He nodded at a red car by the tent.

"She's already here." Sam said.

"Yeah..." Dean said sadly.

"Dean..." I said, worriedly, putting my hand on his shoulder. He didn't resist.

"You know if Roy would have picked Layla instead of me, she'd be here right now." He said.

"Dean, don't..." Sam said.

"And if she's not healed tonight she's going to die in a couple of months." He continued, looking back at Sam, then me.

"What's happening to her is horrible," I said, choosing my words carefully. "But Dean, what can we do? Let someone else die to save her?"

"You said it yourself Dean, you can't play God." Sam added.

Dean turned to look out the window, thinking hard, he didn't look happy. After a few seconds he got out of the car, we followed. Approaching the tent from the shadows, we peeked inside. I saw Roy speaking to a group of his faithful followers, Layla and her mother among them.

"Gather around, please everyone, gather round. Come in closer, come on up." Roy said, waving his arms in the air.

"Where's Sue Ann?" I asked, looking for Roy's wife.

Sam looked around. "House." He said simply. We moved away, Dean spotted them first, the security guards from earlier, coming down the stairs of the house.

"Go find Sue Ann, I'll catch up." Dean said, pushing us into the bushes by the house.

"What? What are you..." Sam asked, interrupted by Dean calling out to the guards.

"Hey!" He looked cocky. "You gonna put that fear of God into me or what?" The guards dropped their coffees and took off after Dean who was now sprinting away among the cars.

Sam and I ran up the stairs and looked in the windows of the house. It was dark, no one was in there. I looked around and then noticed the light. It was coming from the basement, shining through the cracks in the entryway. I gestured to Sam, and we looked at each other, taking a breath, before pulling them open and slipping inside.

We moved quietly through the basement, candles lit up the room from holders on the walls. Rounding a corner we came upon the black altar. I rushed to it, Sam at my side, and grimaced. It was littered with parts of dead animals, blood, horns and candles. I grabbed at the photo I saw in the centre, my heart jumping into my throat. It was of Dean, taken from the security camera the first day we'd arrived, before he was healed. A bloody cross was drawn over his face.

"Sam!" I gasped, passing him the photo and running for the door. I bolted up the stairs and ran into Sue Ann coming down them.

"I gave your lover life, and I can take it away." Sue Ann hissed at me. I pushed her down the stairs and she fell with a shriek. Sam looked at her, fury in his eyes. He tipped over the table and yelled at me to find Dean. I ran.

It was dark, no moon in the sky, only a few barrels with fires lit in them to light up the evening. I ran through the cars, looking for Dean. I heard a shout of surprise, _Dean_, and ran in the direction it had come from.

Dean was running backwards, looking at something I couldn't see. The reaper. I ran up and grabbed him.

"Dean! Dean she marked you."

"No shit!" He said, looking freaked out and backing me away from the reaper, looking around furiously.

Suddenly Dean froze, and groaned, shaking right before my eyes. I spun around. Where was Sam? I couldn't see him, but I did spot someone else. Sue Ann. She was beside the tent entrance. I glanced at Dean, he'd fallen to his knees, his eyes glazed over to white and he was gasping for breath.

I ran as fast as I could for her. My mind only on getting to her in time. I threw myself against her, reaching for the cross she was holding up as she recited her incantation. I grabbed it out of her hands and smashed it on the ground, it broke, blood spilling on the ground. Sam reached us at the same time taking Sue Ann roughly in his hands, he was furious, rage burning in his eyes.

"My God, what have you done!" She cried out, I looked at her my own anger showing clearly.

"He's not your God." I said coldly.

Suddenly she looked terrified, and Sam released her, confused. She turned to run, but then her eyes glazed over, just like I'd seen Dean's do, and she fell to her knees gasping, she lay there for a moment and then she was deathly still. I left her there, looking for Dean, he wasn't where I'd left him. I looked about frantically and spotted him by the Impala, leaning against the roof.

I ran up to him and he wrapped his arms around me, I pulled him in tight, taking in the warmth of his body, squeezing him as I fought to hold down all the grief I'd been holding in all week.

"You ok?" Sam asked, walking up behind us.

Dean was rubbing my back and I felt his chest rise against my face as he shook his head. "Hell of a week." He said.

"Yeah..." Sam said, moving to the passenger door.

"You drive." Dean said, Sam looked surprised. Dean just threw him the keys and then opened the back door, taking my hand and pulling me in with him. He settled himself in the back seat and pulled me up against him. I wrapped my arms around him again, squeezing my eyes tight. Dean sighed.

"Yeah... hell of a week." He muttered again.

* * *

**Baraboo, Wisconsin  
**_**9 years ago**_**  
**

_Three hours later, John had come to a decision. He sat me with him, alone. I'd heard him talking on the phone to someone, I don't know who it was, but they seemed to have helped him clear his head. _

"_There are rules, rules that have to be obeyed without question. You don't follow the rules and you die." John said, taking me by the shoulders and looking me in the eye. _

"_I understand." I said quietly._

"_You're young, too young for this life." John said sadly._

"_But your sons do it." I pointed out._

"_That's different, they were raised in this life. And I didn't have a choice." John said. _

"_The way I see it, neither do I any more." I replied._

"_I'm not sure you understand the gravity of what I'd be asking you to give up." _

"_I understand." I said, looking him in the eye. I might have been only fifteen. But I knew that I stood a better chance of living, of revenging my fathers' murder, if I was with this man. I looked into his eyes, there was a kindness there, maybe he kept it hidden under a tough exterior – but it was still there. I knew it without even thinking, it was as if I could see into his soul, like I could with everyone – I had always been a good judge of character, and this man, I knew in my heart, could be trusted. _

"_You'll be saying goodbye to everything you've ever known." John prodded._

"_Everything I know is dead." I whispered, tears in my eyes._

_He paused. Eyes softening. "Are you sure?" _

_I looked him in the eyes and nodded. "I've never been more sure in my life." I replied. _

_He regarded me quietly. Then smiled. "You know, it's rare I listen to my sons over my own reservations." He said._

_I looked surprised, Dean walked up behind us, arms crossed, looking attentive._

_John looked at him with his eyebrow raised. "But Dean weighed in with his opinion, along with Sam's already very astute arguments, and I'm inclined to go with their judgement on this one."_

_My mouth dropped and I looked at Dean, he shook his head as if to say he thought I was crazy – he'd told me as much earlier when he told me this is not a life I would want. There was something else there in his eyes now, a quiet stillness, like he understood my anguish, understood my pain._

"_Well..." I said softly. "That's a miracle right there." _

_I turned to John, holding my father's rosary in my hands. It matched mine, which I had hanging around my neck. I placed the rosary in John's hands, looking first at the beads resting against his skin, and then into his dark eyes._

_"These are yours now." I said. "My father would have wanted it."_

_He nodded and gave me a hug. "It's going to be all right, Elizabeth."_

_"It's Beth..." I whispered. He smiled._

* * *

**Motel Room  
**_**Present Day**_**  
**

Sam and I were standing in the corner of the room looking at Dean with worry. He was sitting on the bed, staring at nothing in particular – he'd been like this for half an hour. Sam gestured to Dean with a shake of his head and gave me a little push.

I walked over and knelt in front of Dean, taking his hands in mine, looking up into those troubled hazel eyes.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Nothing." Dean said, looking away.

"Dean..." I said gently. "What is it?"

He looked at me and sighed. "We did the right thing here didn't we?" He asked, doubt in his voice.

"Of course we did." Sam said from behind me. Dean looked up at him.

"It doesn't feel like it." He said hanging his head, I squeezed his hands, at a loss for what to say to comfort him.

There was a knock at the door. Sam went to answer it, opening the door wide for us to see who it was. Layla stood in the doorway, looking in at us. I stood up, smiling.

"Layla. Hi. Please come in." I said.

"Hey." Layla said. Dean had risen to his feet.

"How did you know we were here?" He asked, confused.

"Sam... called. He said you... wanted to say goodbye?" She asked, uncertain. I raised an eyebrow at Sam who looked at me sheepishly.

"Come on Beth, let's go grab a soda," Sam said pointedly, Dean frowned at the both of us, but I smiled and nodded, hooking my arm through Sam's as we left the room, shutting the door behind us.

We stopped, leaning against the wall. I looked at Sam. He shrugged. "It couldn't hurt." He said. I nodded.

We listened to them talking inside, we couldn't really make out what was being said. After a while the door opened and we startled away from the wall, making as if we'd just returned to the room. Layla was standing with her hand on the handle, looking back at Dean.

"Good bye Dean." She said, smiling.

We heard his voice float from inside the room. "Well... I'm not much of the praying type..." I smirked at that comment and Sam smiled. "But... I'm gonna pray for you." Dean finished.

Layla's eyes filled with unshed tears.

"Well..." She whispered. "That's a miracle right there." She said and I smiled, remembering when I'd said a similar thing many, many years ago.

Layla turned to leave, stopping to give us both a hug.

"Thank you." I whispered to her, and she nodded with a smile.

I walked in to the room to see Dean staring at the door, when he saw me he smiled and walked over, pulling me into a tight embrace, leaning down to kiss me with a pressing need. He broke away from the kiss with a small sigh of relief and his eyes were back to the same old Dean.

"Welcome back." I said, smiling at him.

"Thanks to you." He whispered. "You never gave up, you didn't leave me to die."

"Never." I said softly, leaning my head into his chest.

"You never gave up believing." He said, sounding surprised.

"Well... faith isn't just for when the good things happen." I said, looking up at him. "You have to have it during the bad times too."

"Funny... Layla just said almost exactly the same thing..." Dean murmured.

I smiled. "She's a clever lady." He nodded, silent.

"I'm glad you got your miracle." He said, looking at me with the same grief I'd been feeling all week. I watched as he blinked it away, replacing it with just a little hope. Hope that things might get better, might get a little brighter.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

* * *

**_Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know what you think :)_**

* * *

**_Song of the day is: You Found Me – The Fray_**

**_Question: What are some of your playlist songs for SPN?_**

* * *

**_I just have to say, I watch the episode I'm writing about – in bits and pieces – anywhere from 3-5 times when I'm writing just to get the feel for the story and to double check transcripts etc. Today was one of those days when I think I spent more time watching Dean and just drooling – he's so freaking hot! Danneel is one lucky lady to wake up next to Jensen Ackles every day ;) Mind you, he's pretty lucky too – she is gorgeous!_**

* * *

**_I've had to go back and make a couple of edits to the first story – the rosary on the mirror in John's motel room is the same one Beth gives John in this story. There will also be an edit where she gives it back to him when she sees him in Lawrence._**

* * *

**_Oh, and shout out to Baraboo, where I lived for like 5 years! :D It's quaint, it's little, and it's lovely!_**

* * *

**_Next up... Sam's powers start to be revealed! And Dean & Beth get to dress up as a priest and nun - oh fun times!_**


	12. Nightmare

_I know a man with nothing in his hands, nothing but a rolling stone__  
__He told me about when his house burnt down, he lost everything he owned_

_Now we've got holes in our hearts, yeah we've got holes in our lives__  
__Where we've got holes, we've got holes  
but we carry on..._

* * *

**NIGHTMARE**

* * *

**Motel Room**

The light in my eyes was one hell of a rude awakening since I'd only been asleep about an hour. Tucked up behind me, arm wrapped tightly around my waist was Dean, who was peacefully sleeping away, oblivious to the fact that his crazy ass brother was now stalking around the motel room throwing our things randomly into bags.

"Sam?" I asked, blinking in the light, "what the hell is going on?"

"Wake up, we gotta go." Sam said. I sat up and frowned, watched as he paced the room. He was as tightly wound up as a spring, ready to snap.

"What? Why?" I asked, rubbing my eyes, not moving.

Sam didn't answer, instead looked at Dean, still asleep, and sighed, reaching over to shake him. "Dean. Dean."

Dean rubbed his eyes and looked up at me, grumbling to himself. His arm tightened around my waist and he buried his face into my side, muttering away.

"Jesus Sam, we only just got to sleep." I muttered, running my hands through my hair and yawning, wishing we hadn't stayed up watching some late night re-run of _Frankenstein _while Sam snored his head off.

Dean rolled on to his back when I started talking, arm draped across his eyes. "What are you guys doing, it's the middle of the night." He groaned, looking over at me. I shrugged, gesturing at Sam who was now bringing my things in from the bathroom and tossing them in my duffel. Dean raised himself up on his elbows, observing this.

"We have to go." Sam said.

"What's happening?" Dean asked.

"We have to go. Right now." Sam replied, grabbing his bag and walking out the door.

"OK. That's not normal." Dean said, looking at me. We were still sitting in the bed, sheet tangled around us, every light in the motel room on.

"Hmmm." I said frowning. "Think we could just turn off the lights and go back to sleep?" I asked with a smile.

Dean looked at me and rolled over to wrap his arm around my waist bringing me in closer to him, kissing his way along my hip.

"Well hey, if he's going somewhere, I can think of few things to do that are better than sleeping." He answered, sleep had suddenly just faded to a distant memory as he looked at me with a twinkle in his eye.

"Hmmm," I said, lying down to face him. "That does sound like fun." I grinned, kissing him teasingly along his neck, running my hand along the firm muscles on his chest, eliciting a soft moan.

The door to the motel room flung open and Sam stuck his head in, looking at us.

"Are you two coming or not?!" He demanded.

"OK OK keep your damn panties on drama queen. We're coming!" Dean growled, pulling away from me and sitting up, looking in despair at his lap.

"Next motel," he said, looking at me. "We're getting our own room." He promised, watching as I slipped out of bed, pulling a pair of jeans over my underwear.

"Deal." I said, throwing him a t-shirt.

* * *

Dean was driving, I was in the back seat, Dean's jacket tucked around me like a blanket as I watched the lights flash over trees on the side of the road as we whizzed by. The steady beat of the wipers was sending me to sleep, I had a moment to worry about the fact that Dean hadn't had any more sleep than I had.

I leaned forward to drape an arm over his shoulder, rubbing his chest with my hand and laying a kiss just below his left ear. He leaned back into me with a smile and turned to give me a quick kiss on the cheek. "You sure you're ok to drive?" I asked softly.

Dean looked back at me and nodded. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Don't worry." He reassured me. We both looked over at Sam who was completely wrapped up in his own world, a journal in front of him with a licence plate number scrawled on it. "Worry about him..." Dean said, raising his eyebrow.

"McReady. Detective McReady. Badge number 158. I've got a signal 480 in progress, I need the registered owner of a two door sedan, Michigan license plate Mary-Frank-six-zero-three-seven." Sam said anxiously into his phone, as he read from a Michigan State Police ID he was holding. There was a pause, and then, "Yeah ok, just hurry."

"Sammy relax. I'm sure it's just a nightmare." I said, watching as Dean shot his brother a concerned look. Sam had just relayed a dream he'd woken up from, a nightmare, where he'd seen a man murdered in his own garage by some kind of spirit, or force.

"Yeah, tell me about it." Sam said in agreement, he was freaked out about this.

"I mean it. You know, a_ normal_, everyday, naked-in-class nightmare. This licence plate won't check out. You'll see." I yawned, trying not to think about how I could be sleeping, cuddled up to Dean, in a nice warm bed right now.

"It felt different Beth. Real. Like when I dreamt about our old house. And Jessica." Sam said, glancing back at me. His jawline was tense, like he was clenching his teeth, waiting for the person to come back on the line.

"Yeah that makes sense. You're dreaming about our house, your girlfriend. This guy in your dream, you ever seen him before?" Dean asked.

"No." Sam said.

"No. Exactly. Why would you have premonitions about some random dude in Michigan?" Dean asked.

"I don't know." Sam confessed.

"Me neither." Dean said, looking at the road.

"Yes I'm here." Sam said into the phone. He glared at Dean and picked up a pen.

"Jim Miller. Saginaw, Michigan. You have a street address?" He scrawled something down on the scrap paper he had. "Got it, thanks."

Sam hung up the phone. "Checks out. How far are we?" He asked.

Dean shrugged. "From Saginaw? Couple of hours."

"Drive faster." Sam instructed. Dean just looked at him and shook his head.

I sighed and leaned back again, buckling my seatbelt. I felt a bit guilty about it, but I was going to get some sleep during those two hours. I looked at Dean, he'd settled into his driving zone, eyes peeled to the road, shoulders set, hands on the wheel. "If you get tired, make Sam drive...he at least got some sleep." I said, and Sam frowned back at me. Dean chuckled.

"I'm fine," he promised, looking at me in the rearview mirror. His eyes met mine and he winked. "Get some sleep."

* * *

**Saginaw, Michigan  
****_Jim Miller's House_**

There was a fine mist on the road as Dean pulled the Impala up to Jim Miller's house. Emergency vehicles were parked in front of the house and in the driveway, and someone was being zipped into a body bag in the garage. I leaned forward with a concerned look, Dean's mouth twitched, he was thinking the same thing – we were too late. Sam swallowed hard and shook his head.

There was crowd starting to gather from the neighbourhood. We exited the car and Dean made his way up to a woman standing nearby.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Suicide." She answered, shaking her head. "Can't believe it."

I was standing with Dean and I looked over at her. "Did you know them?"

"Saw him every Sunday at St. Augustine's. He always seems... seemed, so normal. I guess you never know what's going on behind closed doors." She replied, chattily.

"Guess not." Dean said, staring straight ahead.

"How did... ahh. How are they saying it happened?" Sam asked.

"I heard they found him in the garage, locked inside his car with the engine running." She said giving Sam a knowing look.

"Do you know about what time they found him?" Sam asked again, starting to look agitated.

"Oh it just happened about an hour or two ago." She shrugged. "His poor family. I can't even imagine what they're going through."

I looked across at the house, a woman was standing on the front step of the house, crying and leaning against a middle aged man. There was young man behind them who was staring out into the night, not moving.

Sam watched for a bit, a struggle across his face. He took a deep breath and walked away quickly toward the Impala. Dean glanced at him, then took my arm, following him back.

"Sam, we got here as fast as we could." Dean said.

"Not fast enough. It doesn't make any sense man. Why would I even have these premonitions if there wasn't a chance I could stop them from happening?" Sam asked.

"I dunno." Dean shrugged.

Sam sighed and kicked at the ground, shaking his head. "So what do you think killed him?" He asked.

"Maybe it was just a suicide Sam. Maybe there's nothing supernatural going on here?" I said gently.

Sam shook his head. "I'm telling you Beth, I watched it happen. He was murdered by something. I watched it trap him in the garage."

Dean and I exchanged concerned looks. "What was it, a spirit, poltergeist, what?" Dean asked.

Sam was getting agitated, "I don't know what it was. I don't know why I'm having these dreams, I don't know what the hell is happening Dean!"

Dean stared at Sam, just looking at his little brother.

"What?!" Sam asked, frowning.

Dean looked a little longer and then shrugged. "Nothing. I'm just, I'm worried about you man."

Sam looked fed up. "Don't look at me like that!" He said.

Dean looked away, raising an eyebrow at me. "I'm not looking at you like anything." He said, stopping to look at his feet. "Though I gotta say, you do look like crap." Dean smirked, looking back at Sam.

Sam scoffed. "Nice. Thanks."

Dean grinned and moved around to open the car door. "Come on, lets just pick this up in the morning. We'll check out the house, talk to the family."

"Dean, you saw them," I said. "They're devastated. They're not going to want to talk to us."

Dean paused, looking over at the house, thinking. "Yeah, you're right. But I think I know who they will talk to."

"Who?" Sam asked. Dean smirked, getting in the car. _Oh that can't be good. _I thought to myself.

* * *

**Motel Room  
**_**Next morning**_**  
**

I stood looking into the mirror, adjusting my clothes with a sigh.

"Dean, this has got to be a whole new low for us." I called out into the bedroom. He was moving around in the bedroom, adjusting his top. I flipped my head over, putting on my head piece, and then standing up to look at myself in the mirror with a grimace.

"Well, hey..." Dean said, standing in the doorway looking at me. "So are you a good or a naughty nun?" He asked, slipping in to slide his hands around to my front. He was dressed in a priest's outfit, collar and all, and looked absolutely forbidden – which was an even bigger turn on given that true to his promise, Dean had gotten us our own room last night, even if we'd been too tired to do anything about it.

I grinned. "Well that's for me to know and you to find out." He chuckled, fingering my rosary which I'd hung around my neck. His gaze fell to the pentacle amulet hanging from it and he frowned.

"Better take that off." He said, hesitating before unclipping it. I looked at him in the mirror, my eyes meeting his. I took it from his hand, turning to pull his pendant out from under his tunic. I clipped the amulet to his leather strapping and smiled.

"Your turn to wear it." I said, kissing him softly before dropping it back under his tunic where it was hidden from sight.

"How did I get so lucky?" He said, leaning in to kiss me again. I pulled back with a smirk.

"You call the lives we live lucky?" I asked. He considered my question with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, it hasn't been totally unlucky... we're still alive." He said, and pulled me out into the bedroom.

Someone cleared their throat behind us, and we turned to see Sam dressed in another priest's suit, standing in the room, having let himself in. He was fiddling with his collar, looking uncomfortable.

"Geez Sam, how about a knock? I was just about to get my freaky on with the good sister here." Dean said shaking his head, pulling me around to show off my nun costume to Sam.

Sam shook his head with a smile. "Dean, only you would come up with a hair brained idea such as this one." He said, raising his arms up.

"Well you want to talk to these people or not?" Dean asked simply.

* * *

**Miller's House**

Dean rang the doorbell and adjusted his collar while he waited for the answer.

The man I'd seen the night before comforting Mrs Miller opened the door wearing a red plaid shirt, buttoned down over a while undershirt. He had an almost-shaved head, which looked as if it was done to cover up the receding hairline you couldn't deny he had. Thick eyebrows burrowed together as he looked at the three of us standing on the doorstep.

"Good afternoon," Dean said. "I'm Father Simmons, this is Father Frehley and Sister Mary Carr. We're new over at St. Augustine's. May we come in?"

The man nodded without saying a word, and Dean stepped into the house.

"Thanks," Dean said, looking around at the other people in the house.

"We're very sorry for your loss." Sam said as he passed the man.

"It's in difficult times like these when the Lord's guidance is most needed." Dean said, turning to the man. He had raised his hands in the air and was looking impatient.

"Look, you wanna pitch your whole 'Lord has a plan' thing? Fine. Just don't pitch it to me. My brother's dead." He said, looking unimpressed.

Mrs Miller appeared behind us, carrying a tray of food, overhearing the exchange.

"Roger, please." She said quietly to him.

He looked apologetic and moved away. "Excuse me."

Mrs Miller shook her head, stepping toward us. "I'm sorry about my brother in law. He's... he's just so upset about Jim's death." She waved a hand in the air, shaking her head. She was dressed in a simple grey cardigan, black pencil-line skirt, her blond hair layered but looking unkempt. She had dark circles under her eyes. "Would you like some coffee?" She asked shakily.

Dean smiled. "That would be great."

Sam took an armchair, leaving Dean and I the couch. Mrs Miller had brought over a pot of coffee and some cups. She was pouring the coffee and handing it around to each of us.

"It was wonderful of you to stop by. The support of the church means so much right now." She said with a sad smile.

"Of course. After all, we are all God's children." Dean said reverently.

She walked away with the coffee pot, returning it to the kitchen. Dean reached out and took a cocktail sausage from the table in front of us, stuffing it in his mouth and chewing happily. "Mmm!" I stared at him just shaking my head.

"What?" He asked.

"Just... tone it down a little bit, _Father. _My dad never talked like that, just be normal..." I whispered. He took another sausage, shovelling it into his mouth. "Maybe not too normal..." I added, he shot me an unimpressed look.

Mrs Miller returned at that moment taking a seat on the couch next to me.

"So, Mrs Miller, did your husband have a history of depression?" I asked, starting the conversation because Dean was still chewing away on his snack.

"Nothing like that," she answered, shaking her head and looking over at Sam. "We had our ups and downs like everyone, but we were happy..." She started to cry and I put my hand on her shoulder, looking sympathetic. "I just don't understand... how Jim could do something like this."

"I'm so sorry you had to find him like that." Sam said, he looked visibly upset, struggling with his own failure to have arrived here in time to do anything about Jim's death.

Mrs Miller waved her hand to the kitchen. "Actually, our son Max, he was the one who found him." She said. I looked past her to see the young man from last night sitting in the kitchen on a chair, looking uncomfortable as the people around him ignored his presence.

"Do you mind, if maybe, we go talk to him?" I asked, gesturing to Sam and myself.

"Oh, thank you sister..." Mrs Miller said gratefully, nodding. I smiled and squeezed her hand, inclining my head toward Sam who stood up. Dean shot me a curious look as I got up, leaving him alone with the grieving widow.

Sam introduced us, pulling up a chair for me while he squatted next to it. I smiled him a thank you and sat down.

"So what was your dad like?" Sam asked.

Max shrugged, leaning his head back against the wall he was sitting against. He looked sickly, dark rings under his eyes, a sheen of sweat on his forehead. The green shirt he was wearing made him look pallid. His short blond hair was curly and worn short.

"Just a normal Dad." He said, staring past Sam to nothing in particular.

"Yeah. You live at home now?" I asked, he turned his eyes to me, they looked empty, grieving.

"Yeah. Trying to save up for school, but it's hard." He answered.

"So when you found you dad..." Sam prompted, staring at Max.

"I woke up," He said, blinking. "I heard the engine running." He paused as if reliving the moment, struggling with his thoughts. "I don't know why he did it."

Sam was nodding, struggling with his own thoughts. I smiled kindly at Max. "I know it's rough, losing a parent. Especially when you don't have all the answers." I said honestly, giving him a sad smile. Max didn't say anything.

I glanced over to see Dean standing up, grabbing another cocktail sausage as he smiled at Mrs Miller and headed toward the stairs. I mentally shook my head, standing up. "Excuse me, please." I said, nodding to Sam who took my seat, intending to talk to Max further.

I followed Dean up the stairs and found him shoving something into his tunic. He looked relieved when he saw it was me and brought out the infra-red thermal scanner he'd been waving around.

"Anything?" I asked, peeking into one of the bedrooms.

"Zip." Dean said, shaking his head. He paused to give me a naughty look. "Have I told you how … smokin' … you look in that outfit?" He asked, coming over to hover his lips over mine.

"Nuh-uh." I whispered. He grinned, taking my hips in his hands and pulling me in to him, brushing his lips against mine, and then pressing further, slipping his tongue in to meet mine.

"Oh!" A startled voice caused us to pull apart. We looked over and there was an elderly lady standing at the top of the stairs looking at us in shock.

"Hmm, yes, you're right, you do... have a little something in your teeth." Dean quipped with a smile. "She had some... stuff... teeth." Dean said to the older lady who was now frowning at him.

He stopped, looking a little guilty and then grabbed my hand, pulling me back down the stairs.

"Let's get Sam and go." He said. I nodded, this room sharing thing was bringing out the worst in us. I had a moment to think about how John would kick our asses if he saw us behaving like this when on the job. Dean's stony silence told me he was thinking along similar lines, kicking himself.

* * *

**Motel Room  
**_**Dean & Beth's Room**_**  
**

Dean had the guns spread out all over one of the double beds, some of them dismantled, some not. He was methodically cleaning one of the shotgun barrels while I pinned maps, articles and other information to the walls, setting up our work space. Sam was on the laptop, frowning.

"What do you have?" Dean asked, looking up.

"A whole lot of nothing. Nothing bad has happened in the Miller house since it was built." Sam answered, pushing down the monitor to close the laptop.

"What about the land?" I asked, looking over.

Sam got up, sighing and sank on the bed that was clear. "No grave yards, battle fields, tribal lands or any other kind of atrocity on or near the property." He answered, shoulders slumped.

"Hey man I told you, I searched that house up and down. No cold spots, sulphur scent. Nada." Dean said, reassembling the shotgun, fiddling with it.

"And the family said everything was normal?" Sam asked.

"Well, if there was a demon or poltergeist in there, you think somebody would have noticed something? I used the infra-red thermal scanner man, there was nothing." Dean said looking down the barrels of the shotgun, admiring his handy work.

"So what, you think Jim Miller killed himself and my dream was just some sort of freakish coincidence?" Sam asked, looking over. I frowned at him, he look pale, and a little feverish, I mulled this over.

"I dunno." Dean shrugged, he was now inspecting the handguns. "I'm pretty sure there's nothing supernatural about that house." He said, looking relaxed, sure of himself.

Sam was rubbing his temples as if he had a headache. "Yeah. Well, maybe it has nothing to do with the house." I looked at him with concern when he took a deep breath, holding his head in the palm of his hand. "Maybe it's just...gosh..." I moved toward Sam while he talked. "Maybe it's connected to Jim in some other way?"

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, searching his face.

Sam groaned, grabbing at his head and closing his eyes. He slipped off the bed to the floor and I grabbed him by the arms. "Ahh. My head." He whimpered.

Dean stood up. "Sam?"

I shook Sam gently by his arms. "What's going on, talk to me." I said. Sam was breathing heavily, and he reached out to grab my shirt, clutching it as he fought off pain. He opened his eyes and stared at me, but it was as if he was looking at something else. He froze, a look of panic on his face.

"Sam?" I asked, looking over at Dean who was rounding the bed to us.

"What's wrong with him?" Dean asked, crouching near us.

"I don't know." I said, too scared to move Sam.

Suddenly Sam gasped and looked at me again, then up at his brother.

"It's happening again." He said, certain. "Something's gonna kill Roger Miller!"

* * *

**Impala**

Dean was driving and Sam was on the phone, holding his head with his free hand, rubbing his forehead. "Roger Miller." He said into the phone. "Ah no no, just the address please. OK thanks." He paused and then recited the address to Dean. "450 West Grove, Apartment 1120."

"You ok?" Dean asked, looking worried.

"Yeah." Sam answered, still rubbing his head.

"Because if you gonna hurl, I'll pull the car over you know... cause the upholstery..." I smirked at Dean more worried about his baby.

"I'm fine!" Sam cut him off, glaring at Dean.

"All right." Dean said, looking back to the road.

"Just drive." Sam sighed.

I watched the two of them from the back seat, biting my lip. Sam looked over at Dean and then sighed again, looking out the window.

"Dean, I'm scared man. These nightmares weren't bad enough, now I'm seeing things when I'm awake? And these, visions, or whatever, they're getting more intense..." He said. "And painful." He said worriedly.

"Come on man, you'll be all right. It'll be fine." Dean answered, trying to bolster his brother up.

"What is it about the Millers. Why am I connected to them, why am I watching them die? Why the hell is this happening to me?" Sam asked, looking back at me, and then at Dean again.

"I don't know Sam, but we'll figure it out." I said, leaning forward to squeeze his shoulder. "We face the unexplainable every day. This is just one more thing." I said reassuringly. He looked doubtful.

"No. It's never been us. It's never been in the family like this. Tell the truth, you can't tell me this doesn't freak you out." He was looking at Dean, wanting an answer. I just squeezed his shoulder again, I didn't know what to say.

Dean stared straight ahead for a moment and then opened his mouth, still staring at the road. "This doesn't freak me out." He said, deadpan, watching the road. But he couldn't bring himself to look at Sam, I bit my lip. He was freaked out all right.

I mussed up Sam's hair a bit, like I used to when he was just a young kid and patted him on the back. "It'll be ok Sam, we'll figure it out." I said again. He turned to smile at me gratefully, nodding, before giving Dean another long look. He didn't look convinced.

* * *

**Roger Miller's Apartment Block**

Dean pulled the Impala alongside Roger when we saw him walking up to the entrance of his building, a bag of groceries in his hands.

"Hey Roger." Sam called out the window. He took a look at us, recognising us from earlier in the day and rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

"What are you guys, missionaries? Leave me alone." He said, walking away from us.

"Please!" Sam yelled out, Dean hurriedly pulled the car over to the side of the road and Sam jumped out, running toward the building Roger was now entering.

"Hey. Roger. We're trying to help!" Sam yelled. Dean and I were running to catch him, and I saw Roger pull the door to the building closed, locking it.

"I don't want your help." Roger said to Sam through the window, then walked away.

"We're not priests, you gotta listen to us!" Sam yelled through the glass.

"Roger you're in danger!" Dean called out. When Roger didn't respond he looked around, thinking and waving for us to follow. "Come on. Come on come on."

He led us around to the back entrance of the apartment building, there was a wrought iron gate leading into a small alley behind the building. It was locked. Dean looked around and then kicked it open. Sam ran down the alley to where we could access the fire escape, he climbed easily up the wall and on to the roof of the first level.

I felt hands around my waist lifting me up to get a grip on the roof, Dean pushed me while I manoeuvred myself up, swinging my legs over the edge, he followed using a pipe to get a foothold before pulling himself over the edge.

Sam was already half way up the first flight of stairs, Dean and I raced after him, Dean taking the lead. It was eleven floors to Roger's apartment, we spun around and around the stairs taking them in a hurry. We had just reached the tenth floor when there was a sickening wet squelching noise from above. Sam froze and I ran into his back as Dean overtook him, sprinting up the last flight of stairs to the railing.

I looked at Sam, he was breathing hard, from the sprint up the stairs sure, but there was more to it, he looked as if he might pass out, pale and clammy. He shook his head and we made our way, slower now, up to where Dean was standing by the window to Roger's apartment, staring at a bloodstained windowsill. Roger's head, now detached from his body, lay in the bare flower bed under the window. Sam looked grimly on, grasping the railing.

I grimaced, looking away. Blood trickled down the side of the building and I shook my head. Dean pulled a handkerchief out of his jacket pocket at handed it to Sam, feeling around in his jacket for another one. "All right, come on, start wiping down your fingerprints, we don't want the cops to know we were here." He said. I pulled my own handkerchief out of my pants and nodded. Sam didn't move at first. "Come on, come on!" Dean urged Sam who shook his head as if clearing his mind, then started wiping the railing.

Dean had found a cloth inside his jacket and used it to push up the window closest to him. "I'm going to take a look inside." He said, glancing back at me, I was methodically wiping down the railing closest to him. I nodded at him and he disappeared into the apartment.

In a few moments Dean came back out, shaking his head negatively. We climbed back down the fire escape, wiping the railings as we went.

"I'm telling you there was nothing in there. No signs either, just like the Miller's house." Dean was saying as we walked back out to the street, headed for the Impala.

"I saw something, in the vision. Like a shape. Something was..." A car horn sounded and Dean put his arm out to stop Sam stepping in front of the car that was now coming down the street toward us. Sam paused, then leaned in to Dean. "Something was stalking Roger." Sam said grimly.

"Whatever it was, are you sure it's not connected to their house?" I asked, looking at him worried.

"No, it's connected to the family themselves." Sam said. "So what do you think, like a vengeful spirit?"

"Well, yeah, there's a few that have been known to latch onto families, follow them for years." Dean said as he walked up to the car. He paused and looked across at me.

I nodded. "Angiak. Banshees." I said, looking at Sam. "Basically like a curse. So maybe Roger and Jim Miller got involved in something heavy, something curse worthy." Dean was nodding. We got in the car.

"And now the something is out for revenge. And the men in their family are dying." Sam said thoughtfully. "Do you think Max is in danger?"

Dean's lips pursed in a grimace. "Let's figure it out before he is." He put the key in the ignition and started the car, idling it as we talked.

"Well I know one thing I have in common with these people." Sam said flatly.

"What?" I asked.

"Both our families are cursed." Sam said, looking at me.

Dean rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Our family's not cursed!" Sam and I both looked at him. "We just... have our dark spots." He continued weakly.

"Our dark spots are... pretty dark." Sam said amused.

Dean looked at him, eyes narrowing, trying to think of a comeback. "You're...dark." He said unconvincingly.

* * *

**Miller House**

We were in our religious attire again, Max opened the door when we rang the bell, and let us in.

"My Mom's resting, she's pretty wrecked." Max explained, leading us into the living room.

"Of course." Dean said understandingly.

"All these people kept coming with like, casseroles?" He gestured to the kitchen and dining area, all the surfaces were covered with dishes covered with tin foil "I finally had to tell them all to go away," Max continued. "You know cause nothing says I'm sorry like a tuna casserole."

Sam smiled at Max and he smiled back.

Max waved us over to the couch and we took a seat. There was a moment's silence, and the Sam leaned forward with a sigh.

"How you holding up?" He asked softly.

"Ok." Max said, shrugging. He looked far from ok, he looked as if he hadn't slept in months, the dark circles were almost green they were so bruised, and he looked clammy, like he had a slight fever. His eyes flitted about, and he was moving about anxiously.

"Your dad and uncle, they were close?" I asked, looking at him.

"Yeah I guess. I mean, they were brothers. They used to hang out all the time when I was little." He said.

"But not much lately?" Sam asked.

"No, it's not that. It's just... we used to be neighbours when I was a kid, and we lived across town in this house. Uncle Roger lived next door, so he was over all the time." Max explained. We nodded.

"Right. So how was it in that house when you were a kid?" Sam asked, digging for information.

"It was fine. Why?" Max asked, looking at him confused.

"All good memories? Do you remember anything unusual?" Dean asked. "Something involving your father and uncle maybe?"

Max shook his head, looking slightly uncomfortable. "Why... why do you ask?" He said awkwardly.

"Just a question." Dean said, looking him in the eye.

"No, there was nothing." He said, swallowing hard. "We were totally normal. Happy." He looked around at all of us.

"Good. That's good." Dean said, looking unconvinced.

"Well, you must be exhausted." I said with a smile, shooting the boys a warning look. "We should let Max get some rest."

"Right," Sam said, looking back. He turned to Max. "Thanks."

Max smiled weakly at us, nodding. We let ourselves out.

"No one's family is totally normal and happy. See when he was talking about his old house?" Dean said as we crossed the street to the Impala.

"He sounded scared." I answered, reviewing everything that had just happened in my mind. Dean was pulling at his neck, removing the priest collar and loosening the tunic, making him more comfortable. I followed suit, pulling the headdress down to let my hair fall loosely around my shoulders with a sigh.

"Yeah, Max isn't tell us everything," Dean frowned. "I say we go find the old neighbourhood, find out what life was really like for the Millers."

* * *

**Miller's Old Neighbourhood**

We had discarded the rest of our priestly disguises for good old regular street clothes. I shrugged into my black leather jacket with a sigh of relief, feeling the warmth and enjoying the heaviness of it against my shoulders. Dean and Sam were talking to a man who was in his front yard, raking leaves.

"Have you lived in the neighbourhood very long?" Sam asked him. I walked up to Dean, sliding my hand discreetly under his jacket and just resting it against his lower back, he felt warm against the cold chill I was feeling. He threw me a smile and moved to put an arm around my waist.

"Yeah, almost twenty years now. It's nice and quiet. Why, you looking to buy?" He asked, throwing a look at Dean and I, who for all intents and purposes looked like just a regular, everyday couple.

"No, no," Dean smiled shaking his head.

"Actually we were wondering if you might recall a family that used to live right across the street I believe." I said looking up at him.

"Yeah, the Millers. They had a little boy called Max." Dean added, nodding.

The man nodded, looking apprehensive. "I remember. The brother had the place next door." He pointed at an old Victorian style house with a big front porch, painted green. Dean turned to look at it.

"So uh, what's this about, is that poor kid ok?" The man asked, looking at us.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked, curious.

"Well in my life I've never seen a child treated like that. I mean, I'd hear Mr Miller yelling and throwing things clear across the street, he was a mean drunk." Dean looked at me, a frown creasing his brow.

"He used to beat the tar outta Max." The man continued. "Bruises. Broke his arm two times that I know of." I grimaced. Poor Max.

"Was this going on often?" Sam asked, looking angry.

"Practically every day. In fact that thug brother of his was just as likely to take a swing at the boy." The man said, and Dean looked up surprised. The man paused and stared across the street, thinking.

"But the worst part was the stepmother. She'd just stand there, checked out, not lifting a finger to protect him. I must have called the police seven or eight times. Never did any good." He finished with a sigh, he looked sad.

"Now you said stepmother?" Dean asked, looking at him.

"Yeah. I think his real mother died. Some sorta... accident. Car accident I think." He said, nodding.

My gaze was drawn to Sam who had started clutching at his head, grimacing.

"Are you ok there?" The man asked.

Sam winced, and looked up. "Uh, yeah." He said.

I broke away from Dean and put my arm around Sam's shoulders, he was starting to blink and cower under the pain in his head.

"Thanks for your time." Dean said, and reached out to steer us toward the car.

"God..." Sam muttered, he was holding his head as Dean opened the car door. Sam's eyes suddenly shot up and he was staring at something, just like before. He looked frightened. Dean and I exchanged concerned looks and I rested my hand on his back, waiting for the latest vision to pass.

Sam came back to us with a start, stepping back quickly.

"We gotta go!" He said frantically, getting into the back seat of the car, unsteady. Dean and I climbed in the front and Dean started the car.

"Where?" He asked.

"The Miller house." Sam said grimacing. "It's Max, he's going to kill his stepmom. Max is doing it. Everything I've been seeing." He said quietly, looking at us.

"You sure about this?" Dean asked pulling the car around toward the other side of town.

"Yeah, I saw him." Sam said nodding.

"How's he pulling it off?" I asked, glancing back at Sam, worried.

"I don't know, telekinesis?" He offered, shaking his head.

"What so he's psychic, a spoon bender?" Dean asked, glancing in the rear view mirror.

"I didn't even realise it but this whole time he was there." Sam said. "He was outside the garage when his Dad died, outside the apartment when his Uncle died. These visions, the whole time. I wasn't connecting to the Millers, I was connecting to Max!" I frowned, it didn't make any sense.

"But why?" I asked, looking back at him.

"I guess because we're so alike?" Sam asked.

"What are you talking about. The dude's nothing like you." Dean scoffed, shaking his head.

"Well. We both have psychic abilities, we both..."

"Both what?!" Dean interjected. "Sam, Max is a monster, he's already killed two people, now he's gunning for a third."

"Well, with what he went through, the beatings, to want revenge on those people? I'm sorry, but it doesn't sound insane." Sam said, looking at Dean.

"Yeah but it doesn't justify murdering your entire family!" Dean said angrily, turning on family was a bit of a sore point for him, regardless of the history.

"Dean..." I said cautiously, looking at him. We'd reached the Miller House and he pulled the car up, looking over at me with a shrug.

"He's no different from anything else we've hunted, all right? We gotta end him." Dean said resolutely.

"What?! Are you crazy?" I asked, shocked.

"Then what?" Dean asked with a shrug. "We hand him over to the cops and say 'Lock him up officer, he kills with the power of his mind.'?"

"No way. Forget it." Sam said from the back seat.

Dean turned the car off and looked back at his brother. "Sam..." He growled.

"Dean. He's a person. We can talk to him. Hey, promise me you'll follow my lead on this one." Sam said leaning forward, pleading with his brother.

Dean paused, looking at me nodding my head in agreement with Sam, and then back to Sam. "All right, fine." He reached across my lap and opened the glove box, pulling the Taurus pistol out, and checking it over, looking at me with a scary determination. "But I'm not letting him hurt anybody else." He stated, glaring at Sam and opening the door to exit the car, tucking the gun into his waistband inside his jacket.

I sighed and got out of the car, following Dean. Sam hurried to get ahead of his brother as we crossed the road to the Miller house.

* * *

**Miller House**

Sam looked in the window of the front door, seeing people inside. He nodded and shouldered the door open, breaking the lock. We were standing in the hallway with a clear view down to the kitchen.

Mrs Miller and Max were standing at the island bench in the kitchen, and looked startled at the intrusion.

"Fathers?" Mrs Miller asked, stepping forward, confused when she saw Sam and Dean.

"What are you doing here?" Max asked quietly.

"Ahhh... sorry to interrupt." Dean said, stepping back.

Sam took a few steps forward, he was looking at Max, trying to get the boy's attention. "Max, can we talk to you outside? Just for one second?" He asked.

Max regarded Sam suspiciously. "About what?"

"It's... it's private. We wouldn't want to bother your mother with it." Sam said, turning his puppy dog eyes on Max.

"We won't be long at all though, I promise." Dean said to Mrs Miller. She looked confused but didn't argue.

Max looked at his stepmother and then back at us. "Ok." He said tentatively.

"Great." Sam said with an encouraging smile.

We turned back to the door, Dean stepping in front of me to grasp the handle as Max walked down the hallway. Dean stopped to look back at Max as he turned the handle. Max looked into the hallway mirror, something catching his attention.

Suddenly the door slammed shut and locked itself, all the wooden blinds in the house closed, leaving us in shadow.

Max backed up, looking at us. "You're not priests." He said, glancing at Dean.

Dean reached for the gun, but it flew from his grip, sliding across the floor to land at Max's feet. Max picked it up, pointing the gun at the three of us, Dean pushed me behind him, holding his arms out protectively. Sam had his hands outstretched to Max as he tried to calm him down.

"Max! What's happening?" Mrs Miller cried out, stepping into the hallway.

"Shut up." Max told her. She kept coming.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

Max looked at her, and then suddenly Mrs Miller was thrown back across the kitchen, hitting the kitchen bench with a sickening thud, falling to the ground unconscious. I gasped at the display of power.

"I said shut up!" Max yelled at her, grabbing at the side of his head in pain.

"Max, calm down." Sam said, stepping toward the man.

"Who are you?" He asked, still pointing Dean's gun at us.

"We just want to talk." Sam said.

"Yeah right! That's why you brought this!" He yelled, waving the gun at us.

"That was a mistake, all right?" Sam said, reaching out to him. Dean threw me a nervous look, wide eyed, keeping me behind him. "So was lying about who we were. But no more lying Max, ok? Just please, hear me out."

"About what?" Max asked, grimacing in pain.

"I saw you do it. I saw you kill your Dad and your Uncle before it happened." Sam said. "I'm having visions Max. About you!" He continued, trying to get the man to settle down.

"You're crazy." Max uttered, shaking his head.

"So what, you weren't gonna launch a knife at your stepmom?" Sam asked. He reached up and tapped his eye. "Right here? Is it that hard to believe Max? Look what you can do!"

Max continued to look at him, uncertain.

"Max I was drawn here all right? I think I'm here to help you." Sam said. I closed my eyes and said a little prayer for help.

Max was crying, looking back and forth between his stepmom and Sam. "No one can help me."

"Let me try, we'll just talk, me and you. We'll get Dean and Alice and Beth out of here." Sam reasoned.

"Uh-uh. No way am I leaving you here." Dean said to Sam.

The chandelier about us began to shake, Max was looking at us all in fury.

"Nobody leaves this house!" He yelled.

"And nobody has to, all right? They'll just... they'll just go upstairs." Sam said calmly.

"Sam, I'm not leaving you alone with him." Dean said warningly.

"Yes, you are." Sam said, looking at Dean, then back at Max. "Look, Max. You're in charge here, all right, we all know that. No one's going to do anything you don't want to do but I'm talking five minutes here man."

Max looked back at his stepmother on the floor and the chandelier stopped shaking. "Five minutes." He agreed, then nodded at Dean. "Go." He kept the gun trained on Dean as he slowly walked by.

Dean moved to pick up Mrs Miller, she was semi-conscious and he put his arm under her shoulder and helped her walk to the stairs where I was now standing, moving while Max was watching the others. Dean used his other hand to start guiding me up the stairs.

"Not her." Max said, pointing at me.

"Hey no way man." Dean said, glaring at Max.

"Yeah, just let her go Max." Sam agreed, looking at me worried.

"She stays – so you don't try anything stupid." Max said, waving the gun around, he was starting to look panicked again. I looked at Dean and nodded, he was shaking his head, not happy.

"It's ok." I said quietly, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"OK Max," I said, stepping around Dean who was looking at me wide-eyed, out of options. I stepped back into the hallway, glancing up at Dean. "Take it easy. Just let Dean get Alice upstairs ok. No one has to get hurt."

Max nodded and Dean assisted Mrs Miller up the stairs, turning to look back at us, worried. Once they were gone, Max seemed to relax a little bit. He gestured for us to sit on the couch and took the armchair nearby. I watched as a silver letter opener stood to attention by itself, starting to twirl slowly.

"Look." Sam said, glancing at me then back at Max. "I can't begin to understand what you went through."

"That's right, you can't." Max replied, the gun resting in his lap.

"Max, this has to stop." Sam said gently.

"It will! After my stepmother..."

"No. You need to let her go." Sam interrupted.

"Why?" Max asked, sniffing.

"Did she beat you?" Sam asked.

"No, but she never tried to save me, she's a part of it too." He said dejectedly.

Sam looked at me again, taking a breath, and then turned back to Max. "What they did to you, what they all did to you growing up, they deserve to be punished..."

"Growing up?" Max asked, looking at us. "Try last week!" He said.

Max stood up and lifted his shirt, gun still in hand. His chest and side were all bruised and raw looking, a couple of fresh cuts across his ribs. I grimaced and Sam looked grieved, shaking his head.

"My dad still hit me. Just in places people wouldn't see it." Max put his shirt back down slowly. "Old habits die hard I guess." He sat back down, the letter opener still twirling, getting faster.

"I'm sorry." Sam said softly, leaning forward.

"When I first found out I could move things, it was a gift. My whole life I was helpless but now I had this. So last week Dad gets drunk. The first time in a long time. And he beats me to hell, first time in a long time. And then I knew what I had to do." He looked down.

"Why didn't you just leave?" I asked, finding my voice. The letter opened fell down, coming to a stop.

"It wasn't about getting away. Just knowing that they'd still be out there. It was about...not being afraid. When my Dad used to look at me, there was hate in his eyes. Do you know what that feels like?" He asked. I looked down, and then up at Sam.

"No." I replied quietly.

"He blamed me for everything. For his job, for his life, for my Mom's death." He said, looking back at Sam.

"Why would he blame you for your mom's death?" Sam asked, confused.

Max sat forward, crying. "Because she died, in my nursery, while I was asleep in my crib. As if that makes it my fault." I looked up sharply, Sam was wide-eyed, his mouth hanging open.

"She died... in your nursery?" He asked, fidgeting.

"There was a fire. And he'd get drunk and babble on like she died in some insane way." He paused and then looked at Sam who was swallowing and looking shocked. "He said that she burned up. Pinned to the ceiling!" I had my hand on Sam's arm, I was stunned.

Sam was battling to stay calm. "Listen to me Max. What your Dad said, about what happened to your mom. It's real."

"What?" Max asked.

"It happened to my mom too, exactly the same. My nursery, my crib, my Dad saw her on the ceiling." Sam told him.

Max laughed. "Then your Dad must have been as drunk as mine." He scoffed.

"No, no. It's the same thing, Max. The same thing killed our mothers." Sam said, anxious.

"That's impossible." Max said, shaking his head.

Sam was glancing around, thinking, piecing it all together.

"This must be why I'm having visions during the day. Why they're getting more intense. Cause you and I must be connected in some way." He looked at Max. "Your abilities, they started, what, 6-7 months ago right, out of the blue?"

Max looked stunned. "How did you know that?"

"Because that's when my abilities started Max. Yours seem to be much further along, but still, this has to mean something right? I mean, for some reason, you and I … we were chosen." I frowned at Sam, what was he talking about? Chosen?

"For what?" Max asked.

"I don't know. But Dean and Beth and I … we're hunting for your mom's killer. We can find answers that can help us both. But you gotta let us go Max. You gotta let your stepmother go." Sam said.

Max stopped, thinking. Sam looked at me hopeful, but my eyes were on Max, and he was struggling, battling an inner demon. His face fell into sadness and he started to shake his head. "No." He said angrily, fire in his eyes. "What they did to me?" He sat back. "I still have nightmares. I'm so scared all the time, like I'm just waiting for that next beating. I'm just tired of being scared, I just want this to be over!" Max stood up and walked out of the room, we got up, following him.

"It won't." I said, cutting him off in the hallway. "Don't you get it? The nightmares won't end Max. Not like this."

Sam nodded, standing beside me. "It's just more pain. And it makes you as bad as them. Max... you don't have to go through all this by yourself." Sam said. Max looked at us both for a long moment, thinking over what we'd said, but he was falling, you could see it in his eyes – the darkness was rising up to catch him.

"I'm sorry." Max whispered.

Suddenly I felt us being pushed backwards into the hall closet. We hit the wall with a crash and the doors slammed shut.

"No!" Sam yelled, shouldering the doors. They wouldn't budge. There was the sound of a cabinet dragging across the floor and then it was up against the doors, blocking the light through the slats of the door. We were trapped.

"No, Max!" I yelled, banging on the door.

Sam was next to me, grasping his head again, groaning in pain as another vision hit him. I held his shoulders, looking at him fearfully. He came back to me, gasping.

"Sam! What is it?" I asked, shaking him.

"No. Nooo!" He cried out, then looked up. "Dean!" He yelled, there was a sound as the cabinet moved back from the closet. I stared in disbelief. Sam looked shocked.

He turned to me, fear in his eyes and I knew instantly what he'd seen, we had to run.

I shouldered the doors open, sprinting up the stairs. The door was shut, I knew they were in there. I threw all my weight into it and it burst open, I fell into the room taking everything in immediately. Mrs Miller was standing in a corner, Dean protectively in front of her, arms in the air. Max was in the middle of the room, a gun hovering in mid-air. Dean looked surprised at me, I was panicked.

"No don't! Don't! Please. Please. Max." I begged, hand reaching out to him. He hesitated, looking back at me, hearing the desperation in my voice.

Sam was behind me. "Max. We can help you. All right. But this, what you're doing. It's not the solution. It's not going to fix anything." He tried to reason, pushing me behind him a little bit, putting himself between Max and myself.

Max looked at him, a defeated look in his eyes. "You're right." He agreed.

Sam smiled, stepping into the room, but in an instant Max turned away from him at the exact same time that the gun swung around to point at Max's forehead. It fired and I flinched, blood and brains splattered against the wall and Max fell to the ground dead. He'd killed himself.

"No!" Sam yelled. I stood watching, stunned. We all were.

I was sitting on the couch, my hand on Mrs Miller's shoulder as she rocked back and forth, her eyes stared ahead of her, she was in shock. She looked up at the officer who was questioning us.

"Max attacked me." She said. "He threatened me with a gun."

The cop gestured from me to Dean and Sam who were standing behind the couch. "And these guys?"

"They're... family friends." Mrs Miller replied, looking at us. "I called them as soon as Max arrived, I was scared. They tried to stop him. They fought for the gun." She struggled with the story, but I'd impressed how important it was that she not tell the police the truth, for her own good.

"Where did Max get the gun?" The officer asked. I glanced back at Sam and Dean, who looked at each other, Dean bit his lip a little guiltily, the officer missed the look, focussed on the other woman.

Mrs Miller began to cry and looked up at the ceiling. "I don't know! He showed up with it and..." She started to sob, unable to finish. I patted her shoulder sympathetically.

"It's all right Mrs Miller." The officer said.

"I've lost everyone." Mrs Miller sobbed. The officer looked uncomfortable, turning his gaze to Dean and Sam.

"We'll give you a call if we have any further questions." He said. Dean nodded.

"Thanks officer." He replied, stepping forward to pat me on the shoulder. I looked up and he inclined his head as if to say it was time to leave. I nodded, turning to Mrs Miller. I told her once again how sorry I was, and she nodded, pulling away from me.

Standing, I smiled at the officer and came around the couch to join the boys.

It was dark outside, aside from the emergency vehicles parked, you wouldn't have known anything untoward had happened at all. I reflected on just how many bad things, evil things, occurred behind the closed doors of perfectly normal looking houses.

"If I'd just said something else. Gotten through to him somehow..." Sam said, second guessing himself.

"Don't do that Sammy." I said, hooking my arm through his.

"Do what?" He asked, glancing down at me.

"Torture yourself. It wouldn't have mattered what you said, Max was too far gone." I said quietly. He seemed to think about it.

"When I think about how he looked at me, right before... I should have done something." Sam continued, shaking his head.

"Come on man, you risked your life." Dean said, stepping out on to the street. "I mean, yeah, maybe if we had gotten there 20 years earlier..." He said stopping in front of the driver's side of the Impala. Sam looked thoughtful, pulling away from me and going to the passenger side while I opened the door to the back.

"Well I'll tell you one thing." Sam said, and we paused to look at him. "We're lucky we had Dad."

Dean looked astounded, then smiled, pleased with his brother. "Well, I never thought I'd hear you say that." He said quietly, smiling at me. I returned the smile.

"Well, it could have gone a whole other way after Mom. A little more tequila, and a little less demon hunting." He looked at me when he said that, I smiled sadly, wondering just where, _if, _I'd be if they hadn't shown up in my life. "We could have had Max's childhood." Dean nodded solemnly at that comment.

"All things considered, we turned out ok. Thanks to him." Sam finished.

After a pause, Sam got in the car. Dean turned to look back at the Miller house, thinking about what his brother had just said. I put a hand on his arm, asking the question with my eyes, and he nodded that he was ok. "All things considered." He said quietly, kissing me on the forehead before getting into the car.

**Motel Room**

We were packing up the room, I was pulling down the articles from the walls and stuffing them in a leather document holder. Sam was putting his bag in the car while Dean gathered the remaining articles of clothing and assorted items lying around.

"Dean I've been thinking." Sam said, coming back in from the car.

"Well that's never a good thing." Dean quipped, walking past with his jacket in his hands, putting it on a chair while he grabbed a shirt off the bed.

"I'm serious." Sam said, looking at him. I gathered the last of the articles and looked at Sam, curious.

"I've been thinking, this demon, whatever it is. Why would it kill Mom, and Jessica, and Max's mother... you know? What does it want?" Sam asked.

"I have no idea." Dean said, rolling up the shirt in his hands and shoving it into his duffel bag.

"Well, you think, maybe it was after us? After Max and me?" Sam asked, looking at Dean.

"Why would you think that?" I asked, leaning back against the desk I was standing near. Sam looked at me, shrugging.

"I mean, either telekinesis or premonitions, we both had abilities you know? Maybe he was after us for some reason." He said was looking a little frazzled, worried.

Dean was shaking his head, not saying anything. I walked up and took one of Sam's hands in my mine. "Sam. If it had wanted to, it would have just taken you. OK? This is _not _your fault." I said gently, looking into his brown eyes.

"It's not about you." Dean said from behind me.

"Then what is it about?" Sam asked, looking sad.

"It's about this damn thing that did this to our family. This thing we're gonna find and kill. And that's all." Dean declared, looking at us with a resolute look in his eyes.

I looked at Sam and he stared down at me, he struggled with what he was trying to say. I could see he was scared to bring it up, but it had to be said. I smiled and nodded encouragingly at him, squeezing his hands. We both turned to look at Dean.

"There's uh... something else too." Sam said, not letting go of my hands, he was holding them so tightly I thought he might break a finger if he wasn't careful.

"Ah jeez... what?" Dean asked resignedly, tossing toiletries in his duffel and fiddling with his jacket.

"When Max trapped us in that closet, with that big cabinet against the door... I moved it." Sam said, looking at Dean. Dean shrugged it off.

"Huh. Well the pair of you are strong, heck, Beth broke down that door!" He said, glancing at us.

"No Dean. He moved it." I said, looking him in the eyes. "Like Max."

"Oh." Dean said, pausing in collecting the rest of his clothes. He looked at us in silence.

"Right." Dean added, softly.

"Yeah." Sam said, taking a deep breath.

Dean thought about this for a moment, and then reached down and picked up a spoon out of the sink near him, holding it out with a twitch of his mouth. "Bend this." He said.

Sam dropped my hand and stepped away frustrated. "I can't just turn it on and off Dean!"

"Well, how'd you do it?" Dean asked, genuinely wanting to know.

"I don't know," Sam said, pacing. "I can't control it. I just... I saw you _die _and it just came out of me, like a punch. You know like... a freak adrenaline thing."

Dean looked at me and I nodded, then he tossed the spoon back in the sink.

"Yeah, well, I'm sure it won't happen again." Dean said with a shrug, putting the rest of his things in his bag.

"Yeah, maybe." Sam muttered, frowning. "Aren't you guys worried? Aren't you worried I could turn into Max or something?"

"No! No way Sammy." I said, shaking my head, Dean was nodding at what I said.

"No? Why not?" Sam asked.

Dean answered. "Because you got one advantage Max didn't have."

"Dad?" Sam asked, surprised. "Because Dad's not here Dean."

Dean smirked, he dropped the jeans he was holding on to his bag, and walked over to me, putting his arm around my shoulders.

"Dad... pfft!" He laughed, looking at same. "No. Us!" He said, looking at me, I threw him a smile.

I looked at Sam, agreeing with Dean. "As long as we're around, nothing bad is going to happen to you Sam." I said.

Sam was quiet, looking at us, and then he allowed himself a half-smile, a little light coming into his eyes. Dean chuckled, and gave me a little squeeze, there was a twinkle in his eye that always told me he was up to something.

"Now then," Dean said, grabbing both his and my duffels off the bed, slinging his over his shoulder while he carried mine next to him. "I know what we need to do about your premonitions." He said serious, looking over at Sam. I raised my eyebrow.  
"I know where we need to go." Dean declared, looking at us both.

"Where?" Sam asked with an amazed look.

Dean's face was stone-cold serious and he looked first from me, and then to Sam.

"Vegas!" He quipped, his face breaking into a grin.

I laughed, picking up the folders off the desk and walking to the door. Dean was angling outside with the bags, chuckling. Sam stared at us, tilting his head and then rolling his eyes, walking past me to the car.

"What?" Dean said, dropping the bags into the trunk and shutting it. "Come on man! Craps tables. We'd clean up!" He said with a joke. He looked at me and I shook my head. "I'll let you blow on my dice." He said with a knowing look, I laughed again and Sam got into the car with a snort.

I paused at the door, looking around the room once more. Dean was gazing at Sam in the car, looking very thoughtful all of a sudden. I pulled the door to the motel room closed and went up to him, putting a hand on his back, it seemed to break him out of his thoughts. He smiled, a little worried at me. I inclined my head a little in agreement.

"It'll be ok. We're in this together, remember?" I reassured him. He nodded and leaned down to kiss me softly.

Sam banged on the roof of the car through the open window. "Are you guys coming or what?!"

"Heh..." Dean muttered. "I wish." He turned to the driver's door and I followed. Leaning back quick he flashed me another grin. "He gets his own room next stop." He promised again, I snorted, that had worked so well this time. "This time there's not gonna be any damn sleeping!"

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

* * *

_Song of the day is: Holes by Passenger_

_When I heard the chorus on the radio I thought, 'hey, that's a little Winchester like'... and then I looked up the lyrics when I got home and was like, 'wow, check out those first two lines...' It's been on the playlist ever since :D_

_Always interested in people's playlists – what song would you have put with this chapter?_

* * *

_Probably going to jump back to Route 666 next – I've had some inspiration, but it'll be a bit of a stand alone remake of it, so won't throw this storyline out any. There will be smut though! Oh yeah!_

* * *

_So here's a question for my readers, only because I've had this episode stuck in my head for days and I'm debating how I write it from Beth's POV... In Season 5 when Dean is sent to the future... (5.04 The End) … what would be a more interesting take on it? I have story ideas for any of the following:_

_(1) Send Dean & Beth together_  
_(2) Send Dean alone_  
_(3) Send Beth alone_

_Mind you I'm not really sure why Zachariah would send them together, or Beth on her own, but leave that to me... which sounds more intriguing to you? Hmm? Either way, Beth features :D_

* * *

_Ooooh, ooooh. Another question too. Just because I haven't totally gotten there yet. How do you see Beth in relation to having had other relationships in the past? Does she strike you as having had a couple of flings - or, has she been so busy with hunting, and not sure of her feelings for Dean that she never went there? Keeping in mind that Beth was about 21 when they got together (after Sam went to college)._

* * *

_As always, welcome to the new readers, please drop in a review, even if it's just to say you're liking the story – I'm insecure like that ;) And to the regulars – hope you liked this episode! ^.^b_


	13. Route 666 - The Other Side

**A/N – OK I know I've been promising, and here it is. Hope I managed to keep it a little real at least, not some hyped up idea of sex with the almighty Dean Winchester. LOL You gotta remember, things settle down for these guys (I'm not generally a massive smut writer), but initially... 6 years waiting people! Sheesh! I've been really hesitant putting it up, this has been getting written over a few weeks now...**

**Anyway, super sexy Dean time to be found here. Don't read if you aren't into it ;)**

* * *

_I see that sexy look in your eyes  
And I know we ain't friends anymore  
If we walk down this road  
We'll be lovers for sure  
So tonight kiss me like it's do or die  
And take me to the other side_

* * *

**ROUTE 666 - THE OTHER SIDE  
**

* * *

**Gas Station  
**_**Nowhere in particular  
******__3 years ago (give or take)_**  
**

It'd been eight weeks since Kittanning, and I was well on the way to being mended. My side still ached a bit where I'd been pierced by a pole flying out a second storey window, courtesy of a pissed off poltergeist, my shoulder was almost good as new, and I was … well happy, for a change. I looked up from what I was doing to gaze with a smile at Dean, he had his phone to his ear, listening intently to his voicemail. I had spread the map out on the hood of the Impala while we were waiting to get a fill-up. I traced a couple of routes along the map, pleased with myself. Footsteps approached and I looked up with a smile.

"OK. I think I found a way we can bypass that construction just east of here. We might even make Pennsylvania faster than we thought." I said, earning a smile from John.

"Great." He nodded, passing me my coffee which I took gratefully and had a sip. He looked over the map, nodding approval.

"Yeah," Dean said, finishing up his phone call. "Problem is, we can't go to Pennsylvania." He looked troubled and I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Give me a good reason why I'm just going to change our plans, Dean." John said, looking over at his son. Dean fidgeted, looking a little unsure of himself.

"Well, I just got a call from a friend. Her father was killed last night, think it might be our kind of thing." He said, shrugging.

"What?" John asked, looking surprised. "Since when are you telling your friends about our line of work?"

Dean shrugged and I looked at him thoughtfully – but he didn't give John an answer.

"Who called?" I asked, crossing my arms. Dean looked sheepish.

"Cassie." He said, looking over at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Cassie. As in Cassie, from Ohio, Cassie?" I asked.

"Uh, yeah, that's the one." Dean said, looking at me.

I shrugged, trying to seem all nonchalant about the call, but deep down, that little teenage girl of me was seeing green. John stared at the pair of us, his thoughts not exactly falling from his mouth. Frowning, he looked over at Dean. "When did you meet this Cassie?"

"We hung out with her for a bit, when we were in Ohio doing that job, last Summer." He said, gesturing to me. "Remember, you had to take off for a week to clear out that poltergeist and you left us – it was just the three of us, me, Beth and Sam?"

John nodded, not saying much. He looked over at me. "Well, what do you think Bethie, you're the navigator. Pennsylvania or Ohio?"

I looked at Dean and he shifted uncomfortably. I felt a sick feeling in my stomach and fought it down, I could be professional about this, sure, why not? It's not like he was with her now, he was with me. Besides, the way I remembered it, things didn't exactly end well for Dean and Cassie when we'd had to leave town – they'd had a massive fight, she hadn't spoken to him since. Nothing to worry about, nothing at all. Plus, there was that little added thing about not really being all that keen on Pennsylvania at the moment.

"Missouri." I said, remembering that was where she was from, she'd just been going to college in Ohio. "I'm pretty sure she never would have called if she didn't need us." I said quietly.

"Missouri it is then." John nodded, climbing into the car. He looked out the window at his son with a stern gaze. "We need to have a talk about who else you've been running your mouth off to about the job." I grimaced and threw Dean a sympathetic look. At the same time I was confused, it wasn't like Dean to tell just anyone about what we do.

* * *

**Cape Girardeau  
Missouri**

Dean caught my arm as John headed toward the house, John glanced at us but kept on walking with a shake of his head.

"Hey," Dean said. "So are you ok with this?" He asked, looking at me.

"Yeah, yeah sure why wouldn't I be?" I asked, looking at him casually.

"Well, I just don't want you to get the wrong idea..." Dean said, trailing off.

"Look, Dean... I'm not blind. I was there remember? I remember how much you liked her." I said, wishing I really hadn't said that as soon as it left my mouth.

"See, that... that right there. That's what I'm talking about!" He said, frowning at me. I glared and crossed my arms. He took my arms in his hands and turned me to face him, hazel eyes meeting my own deep brown orbs.

"You're not going to go all jealous girlfriend on me are you?" He asked, worried.

I sighed, looking up at him. I couldn't believe how much my heart overspilled with love for this man, and here I was acting like a jealous teenager. I bit my lip and he smiled. But I felt a little apprehensive, this relationship, thing, we were doing. It was still really new, and we hadn't ironed out all the creases yet.

"Don't give me a reason be jealous, and I guess I won't have to." I said, and he grinned, leaning in to kiss me softly at first, then pressing against me just a little harder.

"Hey." He said, looking at me seriously. "Those days were done the second you flew out that window." I snickered, earning me a raised eyebrow.

"Geez, the things I had to do to get your attention." I said, giving him a haughty look.

"You always had my attention, I was just an ass." He said, looking at me in earnest. I smiled, and pulled away.

"Come on, we've got a job to do." Walking fast toward the house, John was waiting, uncharacteristically patient, for us on the porch.

* * *

I recognised the woman as soon as she opened the door. Everything about her just seemed so... chocolatey. If that was a word. Milk chocolate skin, with long curly chocolate brown hair falling in soft waves over her shoulders and down her back, deep brown eyes to top it off. She had topped off the whole chocolate look with a smart brown pants suit, cream coloured camisole peaking out from under her jacket. Dark red lipstick was the only variation... _like a cherry on top _I thought to myself, shaking my head.

"Dean..." Cassie said staring at him, a mix of emotions crossing her face.

"Hey, Cassie." Dean said with a smile. I cleared my throat, rolling my eyes a little at Dean.

"You remember Beth?" He said without missing a beat. Cassie turned to smile at me, nodding.

"Of course." She genuinely was a nice person, and her smile showed that she was happy to see us all. "How are you Beth? It's lovely to see you again."

"Good to see you too Cassie." I nodded, smiling.

"Sorry about your dad." Dean said quietly.

"Yeah, me too." Cassie said sadly.

"So uh, this is our dad, John Winchester." I said, and he stepped forward to shake her hand.

"Pleasure." John said. "Dean's told me absolutely nothing about you." He smirked.

Dean shot him a deadly look, and shook his head.

"Oh." Cassie said, her face falling, not sure how to answer. "Please, why don't you come in, I'll fill you in on what happened to my Dad."

Cassie brought in a tray of tea and some cups and started pouring drinks.

"My mother's in pretty bad shape. I've been staying with her. I wish she wouldn't go off by herself. She's been so nervous and frightened, she was worried about Dad." Cassie said, setting the tray down.

"Why?" John asked, taking the lead with the questioning.

Cassie started to pour tea into the cups. "He was scared. He was seeing things."

"Like what?" John asked.

"He swore he saw an awful-looking black truck following him." She said.

"A truck? Who was the driver?" I asked, accepting a cup from her and letting the warmth of the liquid inside seep into my cold hands. She passed a cup to John before answering.

"He didn't talk about a driver. Just the truck. He said it would appear and disappear. And in the accident, Dad's car was dented like it had been slammed into by something big." She said, looking at us. She handed Dean a cup of tea, he was looking intently at her.

"Thanks." He said. "Now you're sure this dent wasn't there before?" He asked. I almost laughed when I saw Dean looking at the cup of tea like it was from a some other world, and quickly put it on the side table next to him. Dean didn't do tea.

"He sold cars" Cassie said, shaking her head. "Always drove a new one. There wasn't a scratch on that thing. It had rained hard that night, there was mud everywhere. There was a distinct set of muddy tracks leading from dad's car... leading right to the edge, where he went over."

Cassie paused, tears in her eyes. She bowed her head, fighting to get her emotions under control before looking up again at John.

"One set of tracks. His." She finished.

"The first to die was a friend of your fathers?" John asked, nodding.

"Best friend. Clayton Soames. They owned the car dealership together." She shook her head disbelievingly. "Same thing. Dent. No tracks. And the cops said exactly what they said about dad. He 'lost control of his car.'"

"Can you think of any reason why your father and his partner might be targets?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No."

"And you think this vanishing truck ran them off the road?" John asked, contemplative.

"When you say it aloud like that... listen, I'm a little sceptical about this... ghost stuff... or whatever it is you guys are into." She said, looking over a Dean. John turned to stare at Dean, silent. I scoffed, raising an eyebrow at Dean.

Dean huffed. "Sceptical. If I remember, I think you said I was nuts."

"That was then." Cassie said, looking at him, her eyes lingering on him just a little longer than needed. "I just know that I can't explain what happened up there. So I called you."

A door opened and a middle-aged woman entered the room. "Mom!" Cassie called out, getting up to meet the woman who entered the room. We all rose to our feet. Cassie stood up to take her mother's arm.

"Where have you been? I was so..." Cassie was interrupted by her mom, looking at us all.

"I had no idea you'd invited friends over." The woman said. She was dressed in a long tan coat over pants. Her dyed red hair fell to her shoulders and she looked pale, grieving. She looked flustered.

"Mom, this is Dean, a … friend of mine... from college. And his father John, sister Beth." Cassie introduced us.

"Well I won't interrupt you." Mrs Robinson said, moving to leave the room.

John looked at her. "Mrs Robinson. We're sorry for your loss. We'd like to talk to you for a minute if you don't mind?"

She looked at him, slightly affronted. "I'm really not up for that right now." As she left the room, we all looked at each other, shrugging.

* * *

**Motel Room  
****_Next Day_**

It was early, too early, and yet we were all awake. I was slouched on the bed watching an infomercial in my pyjamas. Somehow the demonstration on screen seemed to ease my mind from the case we were working – ok well it wasn't the case exactly that I'd been obsessing over. John was flipping through some files he'd gotten at the library, looking bored. He looked over, seeing my frown, and got up to walk over and sit on the bed with me.

"Want to talk about it?" He asked, I looked over at him, and laid my head against his shoulder.

"Nah." I said. I didn't really know what to say, even if I did feel comfortable talking to John about my feelings. Which I didn't very often. _Winchesters don't do emotions,_ I told myself. _It's just not us_, and for the last six years, I'd been a Winchester at heart.

"Well ok." He said, kissing me on the forehead in a fatherly fashion, one that he never, ever showed the boys.

Dean walked into the room at that moment, shrugging when he saw us on the bed watching TV. He'd been for a run, he was wearing sweatpants and a hoodie, and looked flushed and out of breath.

"Hey." He said, nodding at us, crossing to the bathroom and pulling off his hoodie and t-shirt, tossing them on the ground. "It's freezing out there!" He complained, going into the bathroom to turn the water on in the shower, letting it run to get hot.

John sat up, patting me on the knee. "I'm gonna get my own room for the rest of the time we're here. Give you pair a little space to talk." He said quietly to me. I raised my eyebrow at him, this was the first time, ever, that he'd said that. First time in particular since the night he'd given Dean and me his blessing.

"I doubt that's necessary." I sighed, sinking back into my pillow, eyes peeled to the television. "Not like Dean's got much to say about anything."

John chuckled, shaking his head. "You'd be surprised what he might have to say without the old man around." His eyes held a twinkle and he winked. "Besides, maybe I need a break from the pair of you." This last comment was offered with a smile, so I knew he was trying to be light hearted about it. He grabbed his bag, and headed for the door, my mouth hanging open a little.

He paused at the door, hand resting on the handle. "Don't read more into things than what is really there, Beth. I taught you better than that." I nodded, thinking this comment over. "I'll be back in an hour, we'll go down to that diner we passed and grab some breakfast." I nodded again and he left.

Fifteen minutes later Dean came out of the shower, towel wrapped around his waist, another towel over his head as he rubbed furiously to get his hair dry. Seeing it was just me in the room, he stopped, interested.

"Where'd Dad go?" He asked, looking around.

I raised my eyebrow, giving him an appraising look. "To get his own room."

"Huh? Really?" He said, a smile twitching at his mouth.

"Yep." I said, rolling on to my stomach. "Apparently he needs a break from us."

Dean snorted. "Well that's a new one." He said, I just smiled.

"Yeah, well, he'll be back in about 45 minutes to get us for breakfast." I informed him.

"Oh really?" Dean smiled, throwing his hair towel on the floor of the bathroom behind him.

"Mmhmmm." I said, coming up to kneel on the bed. He grinned and came over to brush his hand along my cheek. I closed my eyes and leaned into the touch with a sigh.

"Gives me at least thirty minutes to kiss you silly then." He grinned, lifting my face to meet his soft lips in a slightly aggressive kiss. He ran a hand down my neck, gently rubbing his thumb along my collarbone while he deepened the kiss with a hungry moan. Leaning forward he caught me around my waist, guiding me back on to the bed, falling into me.

I moaned, running my hands up over his bare chest, over his shoulders and down his back, pulling him tighter against me, kissing him with a deeply renewed fervour. He brushed the hair back from face, pulling back to look at me, a smile in his eyes.

"How's the shoulder?" He asked, touching gently where it had been dislocated, then bringing his lips down to kiss along it.

"Better." I said softly, he smiled, leaning back a little to run his eyes down my body. His hand brushed under the t-shirt I was wearing, I gasped a little as he traced over the wound that was still fresh and raw in my side. He looked concerned, slipping back to pull my t-shirt up so he could inspect it. Soft lips soon met the pink skin where it was almost healed. "And this?" He asked, huskily.

"Tender." I whispered, not trusting my voice. He nodded at me knowingly, laying another soft kiss against it. It didn't hurt so much any more, but it was still sore at times.

"I'll be careful." He promised as he came back up, lying on the other side so as to not accidentally roll into the wound. His hand snaked around behind my back, pulling me into him, and I was suddenly very aware that there was only a towel wrapped around his waist, and my pyjama shorts now separating us.

His hungry look showed me that he was realising the same thing. Firm hands tugged at my t-shirt, pulling it up over my head, to be quickly discarded. Kisses were planted along my breasts, just above where my sports bra covered, I took a moment to savour it, running my hands along his shoulders, gasping a little before grinning at him.

I flipped him over, hovering over his bare chest, looking into his eyes with my growing need before kissing him again. We'd done _a lot _of kissing over the last eight weeks, we had it down to a fine art. His breathing had quickened, and I pulled him into a seated position, holding his jaw as I kissed him.

I slid my legs either side of his lap, straddling him. His towel had fallen away, revealing his arousal, and I gently ground against it, nothing but the thin silk fabric of my shorts between us. He groaned, feeling me so close, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, moving myself slowly against him. He slipped a finger into my shorts to rub against my centre, I felt the electric thrill of his touch as it sent shudders through my body, moaning.

He rocked against me a few times and then rolled me on to my back, coming in to press himself firmly between my legs, grinding against that fabric. My breath caught and I looked at him with heated desire, his face hovering just inches above mine, watching me as I looked at him. I hooked one of my legs around his and raised myself up to grind against him, teasing. He growled hungrily and kissed me again, urgent, hot and breathless.

I felt his hand slide down between us again, slipping inside my shorts as he thrust softly against me, his mouth falling to my neck as he sucked on the skin, causing me to arch against him with a whimper, we were falling into a rhythm, mind only on the moment, when suddenly the ridiculous ringtone of Dean's went off next to the bed. We froze to the sounds of _Eye of the Tiger._

Dean looked at the phone, frowning, then looked back down at me. "Gah... no." He groaned. "Why now?" He asked. I sank back against the mattress with a sigh.

It went to voicemail, and he grinned, coming back to kiss me with a growing hunger. I kissed him back, falling back into our rhythm, just to have the phone ring again. I let out a frustrated groan and pushed him off me.

"You better get it." I said, and he sighed, but didn't argue. He rolled over to the side of the bed and grabbed the phone, flipping it open.

"Yeah?" He said, frustrated.

There was a pause as he listened to the other end.

"Yeah, yeah... ok. Calm down. We'll be right there." Dean said, hanging up.

I looked at him, he was sitting up on the edge of the bed now, getting some underwear from his bag and pulling it on. He turned to kiss me again, eyes filled with disappointment.

"I'm sorry," he said. "We gotta get Dad and go."

"What's happened?" I asked, sitting up and grabbing my own change of clothes out of my bag on the other side of the bed.

"That was Cassie... someone else has been killed." He said, pulling on some jeans and a t-shirt.

I followed suit, pulling on blue jeans, a red turtleneck and black leather jacket. I hung my rosary out so I could touch it as I walked around the room, brushing my hair up into a ponytail. Dean shrugged into his brown leather jacket and came up behind me, wrapping his arms around me. I sighed and leaned back into him.

"We'll get there." He promised. "I'd rather have more time with you anyway." He said, kissing the side of my neck. I smiled. Someone knocked at the door in that moment, and I realised our 45 minutes was up anyway, John had come to collect us for breakfast. Unfortunately, we were going to have to miss that in lieu of the latest killing.

* * *

**Latest Crash Scene**

We saw Cassie as soon as we arrived. She was talking with an older man, he had brown hair speckled with grey, and kind brown eyes circled by wrinkles that showed his age. Cassie didn't look happy.

"How 'bout closing this section of road for starters?" Cassie was saying to him, as we approached.

"Close the main road. The _only road_ in and out of town? Accidents do happen Cassie, and that's what they are. Accidents." The man replied.

John stepped forward, looking thoughtful. "Did the police check for additional dinting on Jimmy's car, see if it was pushed?" He asked.

"Who's this?" The man asked Cassie.

"John, Dean and Beth Winchester. Family friends. This is Mayor Harold Todd." Cassie said to introduce us all.

The mayor looked over at us appraisingly. "There's one set of tire tracks. One... doesn't point to foul play."

"Mayor, the police and town officials take their cues from you. If you're indifferent about..."

"Indifferent!" The mayor exclaimed.

"Would you close the road if the victims were white?" Cassie asked with a tenacity that belied her 23 years of age.

There was an awkward silence as the mayor and Cassie stared at each other.

"You suggesting I'm racist Cassie?" He looked surprised. "I'm the last person you should talk to like that." He said.

"And why is that?" She asked.

"Why don't you ask your mother." He said, walking away and leaving us standing in the field.

Cassie sighed and led us down to the scene of the latest crash. I lingered behind and sat on the hood of one of the emergency vehicles, watching from a distance. There were enough people, they didn't need me.

I paid attention to how Dean and Cassie walked together, she made a lot of excuses to touch him, reaching for his arm and getting him to help her through the mud at times. Not in character with her usual independent appearance. I sighed and shoved my hands in my pockets, fighting off that little green monster. I thought back to us this morning and smiled, looking over at Dean.

He glanced up at me with a curious look, raising his eyebrow. I shrugged at him, and smiled, indicating that I was bored and my mind was elsewhere. He rolled his eyes and then turned to address something John was saying to him, all business again.

* * *

**Motel Room**

I pulled on a white button down blouse, doing it up and then picked up my suit jacket, pulling it on.

"I'll say this for her, she's fearless." I said about Cassie, looking in the mirror and pulling a brush through my hair. I thought back to how she'd spoken to the Mayor and shook my head.

Dean was standing at an identical mirror, dressed in a suit and fixing his tie. "Mm-hmm." He replied. Dean fiddled with the tie a little longer and then threw his hands up in the air.

I chuckled, and moved behind him – I couldn't knot ties from the front. I reached over his shoulders, taking the ends from him, looping them around each other and tying the knot with nimble fingers. He tightened it and positioned it comfortably with a smile. "I bet she kicked your ass a couple of times." I teased, looking at his eyes in the mirror. He smirked and said nothing.

"What is interesting... is you guys never really look at each other at the same time." I said, pulling away and leaning against the counter.

"Oh?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you look at her when she's not looking, she checks you out when you look away... it's just uh.. an interesting observation in a... you know... observationally interesting way." I said casually, pushing him just a little.

"You think we might have more pressing issues here Beth?" Dean asked, frowning at me.

"Hey, if I'm hitting a nerve..." I said, raising an eyebrow. He rolled his eyes.

"Seems to me, it's your nerve that's being hit." He said, pausing in front of me to stare into my eyes. He kissed me softly.

"Cut it out, or I'm gonna dye your hair green when you're sleeping." He quipped, grinning, but a seriousness underlined his humour. I smiled.

"Let's go." He said, putting on his jacket and holding out his hand.

* * *

**Docks**

John had sent us out on our own to do some investigating. He'd been doing that a little bit more lately. Dean took it with a healthy dose of scepticism, thinking were being tested. Personally I was starting to think we just annoyed him at times when we were fighting.

We approached two older men having lunch, they were at a table and had spread some fish and chips and assorted food over a newspaper table cloth. There was a game of checkers between them and they seemed quite absorbed in it.

"Excuse me. Are you Ron Stubbins?" I asked of the older balding man. He nodded.

"You were friends with Jimmy Anderson?" Dean asked of him.

"Who are you?" Ron questioned.

"We're Mr Anderson's insurance company. We're just here to dot 'i's' and cross 't's'" Dean answered, looking official.

"We were just wondering, had the deceased mentioned any unusual recent experiences?" I asked.

"What do you mean unusual?" He asked.

"Well visions, hallucinations." I explained.

"It's part of a medical examination kind of thing. All very standard." Dean said.

"What company did you say you were with?" Ron asked.

"All National Mutual." Dean said, not missing a beat. "Tell me, did he ever mention seeing a truck? A big black truck?" I noticed this caught the attention of the man with him, his eyes shooting up when Dean mentioned it.

"What the hell you talking about? You even speaking English?" Ron asked frowning.

"Son, this truck, a big scary monster thing?" Ron's friend asked, looking at us.

"Yeah actually, I think so." Dean answered.

"Hmm." Said the friend, nodding to himself, hand on his hip.

"What?" Dean pressed.

"I have heard of a truck like that." He said, looking up at us.

"You have? Where?" I asked, curious.

"Not where. When." Said the man. "Back in the '60's there was a string of deaths. Black men. Story goes, they disappeared in a big, nasty, black truck."

Dean and I exchanged looks.

"They ever catch the guy who did it?" Dean asked.

"Never found him. Hell, not sure they even really looked. See there was a time, this town wasn't too friendly to all it's citizens." Came the answer. Stubbins exchanged a knowing look with his dark skinned friend and they nodded to each other, going back to their game.

"Thank you." I smiled.

We made our way back to the Impala.

"Truck." Dean said, thoughtfully.

"Keeps coming up doesn't it?" I asked.

"You know, I was thinking. You heard of the flying dutchman?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, a ghost ship, infused with the Captain's evil spirit. It was basically a part of him." I answered. Dean nodded.

"So what if we're dealing with the same thing? You know, a phantom truck, an extension of some bastard's ghost, re-enacting past crimes." Dean said.

"The victims have all been black men." I pointed out.

"I think it's more than that. They all seemed connected to Cassie and her family." He said.

"All right. Well, you work that angle, go talk to her." I said, not believing I had just said that.

"Yeah. OK. Where are you going?" He asked.

"I figured I'd just go fill in John on our findings." I said. "Oh, and while you're there, you might want to mention that other thing." I said, looking at him.

"What other thing?" He asked.

"The serious, unfinished business?" I said, and he looked at me remaining silent.

I smirked. "Dean, what is going on between the two of you?"

Dean shifted uncomfortably. "All right, so maybe we were a little bit more involved than I said."

"Oh, OK." I said, tilting my head to the side.

"OK. A lot more. Maybe. And I told her the secret, about what we do. And I shouldn't have." Dean confessed with a sigh.

I fell silent, thinking about that. It had been a really rough time last Summer. Sam was getting ready to leave us for college, Dean and I were feeling more than we were supposed to feel for each other – more than we were allowed by John. We'd had to wait out a couple of weeks John was gone just kicking back and enjoying the time off, but it had been anything but a good time – all we'd done was argue, and Dean had spent most of it off on his own.

Dean and I had gotten in yet another fight and he'd disappeared for days. We later found out he'd been spending time with Cassie. It had hurt, because I had been entertaining this idea of loving him, and seeing him with her, that had just been the final nail in the coffin. I'd pushed him away, falling into a quiet sadness because soon Sam would be gone too, and I'd have no one to confide in, to comfort me.

"Well we all have to open up to someone, sometime." I said quietly.

"Yeah. Well it was stupid to get that close. I mean, look at how it turned out." He said.

I stared at him.

"What?" He asked, looking uncomfortable.

"You loved her." I said softly.

He threw his hands in the air with a frustrated groan. "Oh god!"

I thought about it, and shook my head at him. "You were in love with her, but you dumped her." I said.

Dean looked at the ground, shaking his head. He came around the car to take the left side of my face in his right palm, looking me in the eyes.

"I was in love, but not with her." He said softly. "And she dumped me."

I swallowed, blinking. "Now cut it out." He warned with a raised eyebrow.

* * *

**Cassie's House**

John was strangely absent from the case. He'd holed up in his motel room, and was just giving us orders from there. We didn't really mind, it was refreshing to be investigating without him having to be there. But I was missing the strong, silent presence of him around, he tended to make the awkward silences just... silence instead.

Dean pulled the Impala up in front of Cassie's mother's house and shut the engine off.  
"Ready?" He asked, opening the door.

"You should go in by yourself." I said.

"Why?" He asked.

"She might open up to you if it's just the two of you." I said honestly.

He thought about this for a moment, and then nodded.

"OK, yeah, you could be right. Especially if she's hiding something." He agreed.

"I'm gonna ring Dad and fill him in on the truck theory." I said, opening my cellphone. Dean nodded, pausing to look at me before getting out.

He'd been gone an hour when I started to get impatient. I got out of the car, stretching a little to loosen up my back. I fought with my inner green demon against going after him, but I lost.

I crept up the stairs to the wrap-around porch, wandering along until I came to the study. There was a bit of a warm breeze this afternoon, and Cassie had the french door that led onto the porch open. Another set of steps led down to the garden, positioned in front of the french doors. I sat down on the steps, out of sight, where I could still hear the conversation going on inside.

"I forgot you do that." I heard Cassie say from inside.

"Do what?" Dean asked.

"Oh, whenever we get, what's the word... close? Anywhere in the neighbourhood of emotional vulnerability you back off. Or make some joke. Or find any way to shut the door on me." Cassie replied.

Dean laughed, but it was a hurt laugh. "Oh that's hilarious. See, I'm not the one who took that big final door and slammed it behind me."

"OK Wait a minute." Cassie said.

"And I'm not the one who took the key and buried it." Dean said. I frowned.

"We done with this metaphor?" She asked.

"All I'm saying is I was totally upfront with you back then, and you nailed me for it." Dean said.

"All I could think was if you want out fine, but don't tell me this insane story." Cassie said, referring to how Dean had confessed our lifestyle to her, about the hunting..

Dean raised his voice. "It was the truth Cassie, and I notice it didn't sound insane the minute you thought I could help you." He said loudly.

"I thought you just wanted to dump me." She said.

"Whoa! Now let's not forget who dumped who, ok?" Dean said.

"I thought it was what you wanted." She said.

"Why would you say that?" Dean asked.

"You were _clearly _hung up on someone else Dean. I could see it, anyone could have seen it Dean! Anyone except you. It was easier to walk away than to compete with that." She said. I frowned, starting to feel uncomfortable sitting here and listening to the conversation.

"I didn't mean to hurt you." Dean said.

"Well, you did." She said, sniffing back tears.

"I'm sorry." Dean apologised.

"Yeah, me too." She said.

Silence. Then there was a sound of someone moaning, Cassie. I looked up into the room and saw them kissing. I was stunned, could have picked my jaw up off the ground. I felt like I'd just been played for the biggest fool. I slipped away into the garden as fast as I could, returning to the Impala.

It was only a few moments later that Dean was hurrying down the stairs, looking flustered. My phone rang as he got to the car, I answered it. It was John. "Hi Dad." I said quietly. "Yeah? You're kidding?" In addition to Jimmy's death in the morning, this afternoon had seen the Mayor found dead at his new property.

"What's up?" Dean asked when I got off the phone.

"What isn't." I mumbled, earning a confused look from him.

"What did Dad want?" He asked.

"The mayor is dead." I said, he gaped. "He wants us to meet him up at the mayor's property."

We rode in silence, when I saw John standing over by the body I breathed a quiet sigh of relief, getting out and practically running over to him.

It was snowing, and I pulled my jacket around me a little tighter to keep warm.

John saw me coming, and nodded to the policeman with him. "She's with me."

I smiled. Dean was walking behind me at a slower pace, a puzzled look on his face.

"You guys worked things out yet?" John asked, nodding at Dean. I sighed as if to say no.

"What do you think..." I trailed off.

He grimaced and turned as Dean caught up to us.

"So what happened?" Dean asked.

"Every bone crushed. Internal organs turned to pudding. The cops are all stumped, it's like something ran him over." John said.

"Something like a truck?" I asked, looking up.

"Yep." John said.

"Tracks?" Dean asked.

"Nope." John replied.

"What was the mayor doing here anyway?" I asked, looking around.

"He owned the property. Bought it a few weeks back." John replied.

"But he's white, he doesn't fit the pattern." Dean said.

"Killings didn't happen up on the road. That doesn't fit either." John said.

* * *

**Newspaper Office**

John had sent me with Dean and Cassie to the newspaper office where she worked. I wasn't happy about it but orders were orders. I pulled back inside myself a little, just letting myself mull over what I'd seen earlier. I was waiting for Dean to mention something, this whole _trust _thing playing in the back of my mind. He'd been silent on it, focused on the job.

Cassie brought three mugs of tea into the room and passed them around. She seemed a little jittery, I smirked, well at least I knew why.

Dean looked up and put his mug on the table next to him, he was sitting at her computer, looking through newspaper articles that had been scanned in. "So I'm trying to find some link between those killings back in the '60s and what's going on now. There wasn't a lot about it in the paper."

Cassie huffed. "Not surprising. Probably minimal police work too. Back then equal justice under the law wasn't too literal around here." She said.

My phone rang and I answered it. John. I listened on the other end, relaying what he was saying to Dean and Cassie.

"OK, the courthouse records show that Mr and Mrs Mayor bought an abandoned property. The previous owner was the Dorian family, for like 150 years."

"Dorian?" Dean asked, frowning. I nodded at him.

"Didn't you say the Dorian family used to own this paper?" Dean asked, looking at Cassie.

She nodded. "Along with everything else around here. Real pillars of the town."

"Right, right." Dean said, clicking a few links on the computer. I relayed what had been said to John over the phone.

"That's interesting." Dean said, reading.

"What?" I asked. He looked up.

"This Cyrus Dorian. He vanished in April of '63. The case was investigated but never solved. It was right around the time the string of murders was going on back then." Dean said, John was silent for a minute before speaking.

"I pulled a bunch of paper up on the Dorian place. It must have been in bad shape when the Mayor bought it." John said.

"Why's that?" I asked, Dean was sending me a questioning look which I ignored.

"The first thing he did was bulldoze the place." John replied.

I looked at Cassie. "Mayor Todd knocked down the Dorian place?" I asked.

She nodded. "It was a big deal. One of the oldest houses left. He made the front page."

"Do you have a date for when he did that?" I asked John.

"3rd of last month." Came the reply, I relayed it to Dean.

He clicked on another link and read from the screen. "Mayor Todd bulldozed the Dorian family home on the 3rd. The first killing was the very next day." He informed us, looking up. I felt the familiar flutter of excitement come into my stomach telling me when we were on to something

* * *

**Motel**

I was getting my stuff together in the motel room, my intention to go and sleep in John's room. No way was I spending any longer with Dean than I had to, not until he decided to tell me about his encounter with Cassie.

Dean was standing in the room, arms crossed, looking puzzled. I rolled my eyes.

"Uh, you going somewhere?" He asked with a frown.

"You tell me Dean." I said with a sigh, shoving a pair of black boots into my duffel, they were new and I hadn't quite worn them in yet.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"How did your little talk go with Cassie this afternoon?" I asked, turning to regard him with wary eyes, it had been hours but I was still fuming over his silence.

He threw his arms up in the air, looking up at the ceiling, letting out a deep breath. "This again? I thought we were past this?" He said coming over to me, I took a step back.

"Well, like I said, actions Dean – actions speak louder than words." He stopped and looked at me, puzzled.

"What are you talking about?" He said.

I sighed and went to get my things from the bathroom, pushing past him.

"I came up to the house to get you earlier. I saw you with Cassie." I said, leaning against the basin for a moment, wavering.

"And?" He asked.

"And you looked really, _really _comfortable." I answered with a shrug, turning to look at him. I blinked back tears and fought to hide the hurt I was feeling.

"Oh." Dean said.

"Yeah." I whispered, looking away.

"Did you hear what was said?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"Yes." I said, looking at my hands.

"Then what's the problem?" He asked. I glanced up at him, frowning.

"What's the problem?!" I asked a little loudly. He looked taken aback.

"You were kissing her Dean!" I said, walking over to the bed and shoving the rest of my things in my duffel, I didn't want to look at him.

"What?" He muttered. "I thought you said you heard everything."

I hesitated, looking up at him. His phone rang, he shot it a deadly look and answered it, it was Cassie... _of course, _I thought ruefully as I zipped up my duffel and turned to see what she wanted now.

* * *

**Cassie's Lounge**

John was pouring the tea, watching silently. Cassie accepted the cup he offered her with a shaky hand. Dean was sitting next to her, looking concerned. I sighed.

"Maybe you could throw a couple of shots in that." Cassie smiled at John who chuckled.

John sat opposite her and leaned forward. "You didn't see who was driving the truck?" He asked.

Cassie had told us about how she'd been in the house, and the big black truck had come and menaced her, following her from room to room. It hadn't done anything more than shine it's lights in the windows, and revved it's engine at her, but it had been enough to terrify her given how everyone else had ended up once they saw this truck. I felt sorry for her, a little, this wasn't an easy thing to go through.

"It seemed to be no one. Everything was moving so fast. And then it was just gone. Why didn't it kill us?" Cassie replied, looking over at Dean.

"Whoever was controlling the truck wants you afraid first." Dean said, laying a hand on her shoulder.

John looked over at Cassie's mother who was sitting on the couch, shaking.

"Mrs Robinson, Cassie said that your husband saw the truck before he died." John said. She didn't respond.

"Mom?" Cassie prompted.

"Oh. Martin was under a lot of stress. You can't be sure about what he was seeing." She replied vaguely, clearly there was more to this story than was being said however.

"Well, after tonight I think we can be reasonably sure he was seeing a truck. What happened tonight, you and Cassie are marked." John said, looking at her. She just stared at John, not comprehending, stubbornly refusing to talk.

"Your daughter could die!" Dean said, sitting forward, earning a stern look from John when Mrs Robinson looked startled.

"Mrs Robinson," John said gentler. "If you know something, now would be a really good time to tell us about it."

"Yes. Yes, he said he saw a truck." Mrs Robinson confessed.

"Did he know who it belonged to?" John asked.

"He thought he did." She answered, nodding her head.

"Who was it?" I asked, speaking for the first time since I'd arrived, I was leaning against the back of the couch and she glanced up at me when I spoke.

"Cyrus." She said, starting to get upset. "A man named Cyrus."

John exchanged a look with Dean, and Dean reached into his bag, rummaging around. He pulled out the newspaper article we'd been looking at earlier about Dorian's disappearance.

"Is this Cyrus?" Dean asked, showing it to her.

"Cyrus Dorian died more than 40 years ago." She said sadly.

"How do you know he died, Mrs Robinson? The paper said he went missing." John said softly, sitting next to her. "How do you know he died?"

Mrs Robinson sighed, taking a shaky breath. "We were all very young. I dated Cyrus a while, I was also seeing Martin... in secret of course. Inter-racial couples didn't go over too well back then." She glanced up at Cassie who was wide-eyed and listening intently.

"When I broke it off with Cyrus and he found out about Martin, I don't know, he changed. His hatred. His hatred was frightening." She said.

"The string of murders." John stated.

She nodded quickly. "There were rumours. People of colour disappearing into some kind of a truck. Nothing was ever done." She paused before continuing as if collecting her thoughts. "Martin and a... Martin and I were going to be married, in that little church near here, but last minute we decided to elope as we didn't want the attention." John nodded.

"And Cyrus?" Dean asked, leaning forward.

Mrs Robinson started to cry. "The day we set for the wedding, was the day someone set fire to the church. There was a children's choir practising in there. They all died!" She sobbed, tears streaming down her face. Cassie moved to sit next to her mother, putting her arm around her shoulders.

"Did the attacks stop after that?" I asked softly.

"No!" She answered, sobbing. "There was one more. One night that truck came for Martin." We all glanced at each other at this comment, Cassie looked sick. "Cyrus beat him something terrible. But Martin, you see, Martin got loose. And he started hitting Cyrus and he just kept hitting him and hitting him..." She broke off, the unspoken words dying in her mouth. Martin had killed Cyrus.

"Why didn't you call the cops?" Dean asked, frowning. She looked at him in shock.

Mrs Robinson had settled down, she was crying but it wasn't quiet so violently. "This was forty years ago. He called on his friends, Clayton Soames and Jimmy Anderson, and they put Cyrus' body into the truck and they rolled it into the swamp at the edge of his land, and all three of them kept that secret, all of these years." She said.

"And now all three are gone." I said contemplatively.

"And so is Mayor Todd." John said. "Now he said that you of all people would know he is not a racist. Why would he say that?"

Mrs Robinson nodded, smiling a little. "He was a good man. He was a young deputy back then, investigating Cyrus' disappearance. Once he figured out what Martin and the others had done, he... he did nothing, because he also knew what Cyrus had done."

John nodded, thinking it through.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Cassie asked, looking shocked.

"I thought I was protecting them. And now there's no one left to protect." She said, sniffing and wiping at her eyes.

"Yes there is." Dean said, and he looked over at Cassie. We all did. She looked up, worried, a mix of emotions crossing her face.

* * *

John was talking to Dean outside by the Impala, I wandered aimlessly around the porch, trying to make sense of everything that we'd just heard. It was amazing how the past could come up to haunt you, I had a moment to think about what sort of past would be around to haunt me when I was sixty years old, and wondered if I'd even live to see that age.

I was playing with my rosary, leaning against the railing when I heard her approach. I looked up and she hesitated a few yards away.

"Hey, how you holding up?" I asked to break the silence.

"Yeah, ok, I think." Cassie said, nodding. She looked over at Dean and John who were lost in conversation. "If it weren't for Dean I'd probably have lost it by now."

I sighed, and looked down at my hands. "Yeah, I bet he's been a big comfort for you." I said quietly.

She looked at me, then came to lean against the railing by my side, crossing her arms in front of her.

"He told me you saw us, earlier today." She said, looking at me.

I nodded impassively, yeah this was a conversation I really wanted to have.

"That was my fault. I … misread... what he was saying." She said. I looked up in surprise, raising my eyebrow.

"Look, Beth, when Dean and I were together last summer, it was great, I really _really _thought that maybe something could come of it. But the truth is, I was just seeing what I wanted to see." She said.

I frowned, shrugging. "Well, you guys seemed real cosy to me." I said.

"Maybe, but you didn't see what I saw." She said, looking uncomfortable.

"And what did you see?" I said, a little less nicely than I intended.

"You." She said, my eyes narrowed. She shook her head. "You didn't see it, you _still don't see it_, do you?" She asked, and I frowned.

"Beth, when I first met you, seeing you both together... I thought it was strange, you two had this weird _Hansel and Gretel _co-dependent sibling thing going on. It was hard, to find a place in that." I looked at my feet, silent.

"Then when Sam told me you weren't really their sister..." Her voice trailed off and I glanced up at her. "Well it started to make sense."

I was frowning again, shifting uncomfortably. "Look, Beth, I don't know what's going on with the pair of you, but there's one thing for certain. He cares about you. More than I want to admit." She rested her hand on my arm, and I stared at it. "When I kissed him this afternoon, he was pretty quick to let me know that it was unwanted." She said.

I looked up at her in surprise. "He ran out of that house so fast I could barely catch a breath." She said, looking at me in earnest.

"You don't have to worry about me Beth. There's a reason I ended it last Summer. It was going nowhere. It was going nowhere because he was completely and utterly hung up... _on you_." She said, whispering the last part.

I looked over at Dean again when she said that, he was frowning, looking back at us. He gave me a frustrated look and raised his shoulders questioningly when my eyes met his. I sighed and looked back at her, she smiled at me, sadness playing behind her eyes.

"Hmm." I said thoughtfully, staring into the darkness.

Cassie was shaking her head. "Damn if you aren't just as stubborn as he is!" She said with a laugh. I raised an eyebrow and it did bring a smile to my face. If anything was true, that was.

"Don't let him slip through your fingers Beth." Cassie cautioned, looking at me before getting up.

My thoughts went back to what he'd said earlier that day. _"I was in love, but not with her." _I sighed, looking over at Dean, he was staring at me with a concerned look on his face while his father continued to talk about something as he pored over a map spread on the car hood.

* * *

**Motel**

My bag was still in the room we'd been in, packed and ready to move over to John's room. I hesitated in the middle of the room, looking at where it was sitting.

I felt Dean come in to the room, closing the door behind us. He walked over, quietly, standing behind me. I could feel his warmth as he was just inches from me. He pulled playfully on my ponytail, turning me around to face him. I looked away from him feeling a bit guilty. "You ready to talk yet?" He asked, his eyes showing a vulnerability that was rare in the man.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, looking up at him.

"For what?" He asked, brushing a finger along my cheek.

"Cassie told me what happened." I answered.

"Oh." He said simply, but there was a smile playing on his lips as he looked at me smugly.

I shoved him a little bit, not hard, and rolled my eyes at him. "Must you be so smart ass about it?" I asked. He feigned offence. "Like I already don't feel bad enough." I cringed.

"I'm an idiot." I said, grasping the lapels of his jacket in my hands and leaning my head against his chest. He sighed and put his arms around me, pulling me close.

"Yeah, but you're my idiot." He said with a chuckle. I huffed, and looked up at him.

"Am I?" I asked, fragile.

His eyes softened as he looked at me. He rolled his eyes and bent down to kiss me tenderly. "You've been mine from the day I first caught you in my arms." He said softly. I raised an eyebrow. "I was just too stubborn to see it, to say it." He confessed. "I'm an ass."

I gazed at him, not wanting to look away, a smile playing on my lips. He looked serious all of a sudden, taking both sides of my face in his hands.

"I love you Beth." He said, and my eyes widened. "You need to know that."

"I do." I said, softly, he smiled and then the softness in his eyes was replaced with a hunger. He caught my mouth with an impassioned kiss, it was hot and urgent, filled with an unfulfilled need that had been years in the making. I returned it, feeling just as anxious, hands running up into his hair, holding his head as he kissed me hard.

He lifted me up against him and I wrapped my legs around his waist as he carried us over to the bed, laying me down as he kept kissing me. He pulled back just a little and I whimpered in protest, he chuckled, shrugging out of his jacket and letting it fall to the floor. I pulled him back down to kiss him again, my tongue searching his mouth in a wanton frenzy of desire.

Dean moaned and ran a hand down my right side, brushing his thumb along the soft skin at my side, sliding under my shirt. I shivered at his touch and started to pull at his t-shirt, tugging it down over his head as I broke the kiss to undress him. He pulled me up to a seated position and I was able to pull off my own jacket, and he helped divest me of my own top, his hands running slowly, tentatively along the lace of my bra as he watched me. Reaching up he pulled my hair loose from the hair tie, smoothing my hair down my back.

"Dean..." I groaned, and he just smiled at me.

"Nuh-uh." He said, kissing along my shoulder. "You think I'm going to rush this, you got another thing coming." He said huskily in my ear. "I've waited six years for this."

I closed my eyes and tried not to think about it, all that time we had wasted. All those other women he'd been with... I sighed.

"What?" He asked, hearing the sigh and looking at me.

"Nothing. You're here now, and … well ...that's all that matters." I said, kissing him again with a smile. He didn't press the issue, and I decided to take more affirmative action. With a grin I rolled him off me, using my leg to flip him on his back against the mattress, he caught his breath and laughed – it was good to hear that laugh.

I started kissing him along his shoulder and then down his chest, taking a nipple in my mouth and flicking my tongue across it, earning a gasp and a steamy look from him. He threw his head back on the bed, his chest rising up to meet my mouth as I continued to tease him, loving the feel of his body as it arched. I slid my hands down to unzip his jeans as I sucked on the nipple, feeling him buck underneath me. My hand slid in to the front of his jeans, rubbing against the fabric of his boxers, he groaned and I saw his hands clutch at the bedsheets.

When I started to rub against his erection he groaned and raised up on his elbows to look at me. His eyes were full of desire, and he arched against my touch before pouncing at me, the momentum of his body pushing me to my feet off the end of the bed, his arms locked safely around me as he renewed his kissing along my neck, up my jawline to my mouth, coming in short, excited breaths.

He pushed me backwards, up against the wall and pressed himself against the length of me. I gasped as he buried his mouth in the crook of my neck, nipping and flicking his tongue across my skin. His knee was pressed against my groin and he rubbed it eliciting another groan from me as I slid my hands down into his jeans, cupping his butt to pull him harder against me.

Dean easily removed my bra, sliding down a little to cup both breasts in his hot hands, squeezing them both softly and firmly at the same time. I felt a wetness trickle from me, I was so aroused by his touch, and the years of imagining this very moment. I felt his hands move down my abdomen, pausing at my jeans a moment before undoing them and letting them fall to the floor. With a cheeky grin he pressed me back against the wall, and fell to his knees. One hand came up to knead my left breast as his other pulled aside the fabric of my panties, just enough, for him to find what he was looking for. He leaned in and I had a moment to stare in disbelief before his tongue flicked across my clitoris. I gasped and felt my legs almost give way, but he held me firmly against the wall, expecting it.

His hands moved to grasp my hips as he slowly lapped at me, exploring with his tongue and probing against hot, wet skin. My breathing was ragged, and I felt myself starting to lose all thoughts as I gave in to the sheer animal instincts that were taking over. With a groan he pulled away, and I looked down at him, frowning. He chuckled and rose to kiss me, I tasted my scent on his lips and I didn't care, returning his kiss eagerly.

Slowing the kiss down. Dean started to gently pull me back to the bed, turning me to sit, pushing me gently down against the mattress. He dropped his own jeans to the floor, and joined me, leaning over me, staring into my eyes, stroking a hand across my forehead.

"Hey..." He whispered, smiling.

"Hey." I smiled back.

"Beth...?" He looked at me, his arousal bleeding away to concern.

"What's wrong?" I asked, touching his face.

"Nothing... nothing, it's just." He searched my eyes. "You know I never... I never asked about your... past." He said, trying to find the words.

"My past?" I asked, inquisitive.

"Yeah... other boyfriends." He said, looking at me, a burning question in his eyes.

"Oh." I said quietly.

He kissed me briefly, eyes never leaving mine. Waiting for an answer.

"I..." Searching for the words, I felt myself blush a little. "Well I've had boyfriends Dean... a couple." I said shyly.

"And...?" He asked, pressing for an answer.

"No." I said simply. He nodded, leaning his forehead against my chest for a few heart beats.

"Is that a problem?" I asked, biting my lip.

He looked up sharply, frowning. "No... no of course not." He smiled, resting his forehead against mine, placing a kiss on my nose. "You're beautiful." He whispered.

That fire returned to his eyes as he resumed kissing me, perhaps a little less urgently, though the eagerness was still there. His hand splayed across my abdomen, brushing across my skin. I felt like I was almost beside myself with anticipation, closing my eyes and just feeling him against me. He moved his hand down, slipping a couple of fingers inside my panties. I felt the warm press of his fingers as he slipped one inside of me and gasped, arching to him.

Dean slipped a second finger inside me and stroked, his eyes meeting mine as he watched the frantic, fired up look in my eyes. With a few experienced moves he had me writhing underneath his touch, head thrown back, groaning as I thought I couldn't bare the thrill that was going through my body any longer. He brought me to the edge and as I started to shudder under him he withdrew his touch from within, brushing his hands along me as he tugged a little urgently at my underwear, removing his own at the same time.

The hunger had returned to his eyes, as he leaned over me. His hard arousal pressed against my thigh as he positioned himself. I spread my legs a little wider, wrapping one around his thigh as I arched up in to him, feeling his pressing need against my centre. I felt my eyes widen as he started to enter me, it was snug and hot, but I was so ready, so dripping that he was able to push in.

I felt a quick searing pain as he pressed in further, his mouth hovering just over mine, our lips brushing against each other as our breaths mingled. He brushed the hair out of my eyes with a soft touch, looking into my eyes as he nudged into me, all the way to his hilt. I gasped, revelling in the feel of him completely sheathed inside me. He swallowed, looking at me.

"Is this okay?" He asked, looking at me questioningly. I nodded, thrusting up to meet him, urging him on, an electrifying feeling passing through my body as I felt the heaviness of his body pressing down on mine. He moved then, slowly at first, grinding against me as he kept himself pressed firmly inside, he groaned and quickened the pace to my eager moans. Withdrawing a little, he started to push harder, thrusting in to me with a faster rhythm.

I wound my legs around him, there was pain there, it was all very new, but it was overshadowed by the frantic pace he was now slipping in to, fast, powerful, feverish. I moved with him, matching his pace, breathless as he dropped his head down to my shoulder, his mouth hot on my skin as he groaned with every thrust. He moved to change the angle, a fresh new thrill running through my body as the grinding pressed against my clit and sent electrifying shudders all over me. I gasped, closing my eyes against the stars now bursting from my eyes. He was fired up, and I felt myself slipping into the warm oblivion of orgasm. I grabbed his shoulders, arching up and calling out his name as I slipped over the edge, shuddering under his body, inflamed, awakened. He looked up to kiss me, slowing a little in his movements, but still grinding gently against me.

As my breathing settled a little, feeling myself fall into the softness that only orgasm could bring, I felt him press against me hard, he seemed to kick into overdrive, upping the pace again, all the gentleness of before slipping away as his hunger set in, plunging into me. I was ready now to take the pounding, holding him close as he buried his face into my shoulder again, gasps escaping his lips as I felt a few more final thrusts, the hotness spilling from him, inside of me. His body fell into mine, heavy and hard as it crushed me in a comforting feeling. He sank into me, breathing heavy. We lay this way for a while, until the weight started to impact my ability to breathe.

I pushed him over on to his back, he leaned back into the pillow, smiling lazily at me. He reached out a hand to brush along my arm as I leaned next to him on my side, looking at him with a happy smile. He reached out, grasping my head behind my neck and pulled me to him for a gentler, more tender kiss, before settling me in against his shoulder.

"Mmmm... well that was worth the wait." I said with a smile. He laughed, that soft melodic sound that fell from his lips too little these days. I resolved to be the one to make him laugh more often, Lord knows we needed it with our lives.

"Mmm.." He agreed, kissing the top of my head. We were rudely startled out of our afterglow to the sound of Dean's phone again, I sighed. Dean groaned.

"God, does it never end?" He asked no one in particular, reaching for the phone.

"Yeah?" Dean asked... there was a pause and then he was gesturing to me to get up. I went searching for my bra, earning a grin from Dean as he sat, pulling his boxers on one-handedly. "Yes sir. We'll be right there." He said, hanging up the phone.

"Dad?" I asked.

"Who else?" He said coming over to kiss me quickly as I wriggled into my jeans.

"No time for showers, we gotta go." He said, and I pulled the turtleneck back over my head. I grinned and shrugged on my jacket, now fully dressed while he was still in boxers.

"Race ya." I said with a laugh and skipped out the door to his protests.

* * *

**Motel – John's Room**

"So we're dealing with a killer truck." John was saying.

"Yeah, like _Christine_" Dean quipped.

John turned a stern eye, ignoring Dean's comment. "This Cyrus guy was obviously so evil that it's infected the truck, and when he died, the swamp became his tomb, his _spirit _dormant for 40 years."

"So what woke it up?" I asked.

"The construction on his house. Or the destruction." John answered, looking at me.

"Right. Demolition or remodelling can awaken spirits, make them restless." Dean agreed, nodding.

"Mmm-hmm." John mumbled, making some notes in his journal. "Like that theatre in Illinois, you remember?" We both nodded.

"And the guy that tore down the family homestead, Mayor Todd, is the same guy who kept Cyrus' murder quiet and unsolved." Dean said, pacing the room.

"So now his spirit is awakened and out for blood." I surmised with a shudder.

"Yeah I guess." Dean said, stopping and gazing at me. "Who knows what ghosts are thinking anyway." He shrugged.

"You know we have to dredge up that body from the swamp now." John said, deadpan. I grimaced.

"Aww man." Dean said.

"Let's get to work." John said.

* * *

**The Dorian Property**

It was dark out now and John had parked the Impala to point toward us so we could have some idea of what was happening. He was knee deep in water now, having waded into the lake to find the infamous black truck.

Dean helped finish attaching a chain to the bull bar of the truck and rushed to jump on the tractor we had acquired from the property.

"All right. Let's get her up." John said, and Dean backed the tractor up, the chains braced and then there was movement as the truck started to inch out of the water. John was waving at Dean, directing him.

"All right. A little more. Little more. All right, stop." He held up his hand. Dean braked, shutting off the engine and jumping down.

He moved to admire the truck which was now dripping in mud and water, grass, slime and twigs hanging from it.

"Nice." John said appreciatively.

"Hell yeah!" Dean said, going to the trunk of the Impala, I joined him – he handed me the salt, and we rummaged for the gas, along with a flash light.

"OK. Let's get this done." Dean said with a smile.

"All right." I said, closing the trunk of the car.

John was inspecting the cabin of the truck, as we approached he opened the door and a decayed body fell out. I grimaced, making a face of disgust. "Ewww!"

John and Dean just shrugged. I sprinkled the salt over the body while John doused it with gas. Dean lit a match and dropped it on the body, it burst into flames. We all stood watching it for a moment. The heat was a welcome change to the chilly night air.

"Think that'll do it?" I asked, looking at John.

Lights shone down on us all of a sudden, blinding us as we looked up. It was the ghost truck.

"I guess not." Dean said.

"So burning the body had no effect on that thing?" I asked, looking at Dean.

"Sure it did. Now it's really pissed." John said with a smile, I just gaped at him.

"But, Cyrus' ghost is gone, right Dad?" Dean asked.

"Apparently not the part that's fused with the truck." John said, starting to walk, we followed him back to the Impala.

"Where are you going?" Dean asked John.

"Going for a little ride." John said.

"What?" Dean questioned.

"Going to lead that thing away. That piece of crap, you need to burn it." I looked between the two of them and Dean was pushing his way past his father.

"How are we supposed to burn a truck Dad?" I asked

"Figure something out!" He said, tossing me the bag he had with him.

"No way man, I can drive this thing better than you, I'll go. You burn the truck." Dean said, cutting off his father. He didn't wait for a response, just turned and got in the car.

John and I exchanged looks and he shrugged. Dean reversed the Impala and drove off. The ghost truck roared after him and I felt my heart jump into my throat.

"Focus Beth, let's get the job done." John said, turning for the lake shoreline.

I nodded and followed along, pushing my fears to the back of my mind.

John was flipping through his journal, which he had pulled out of his pocket.

"Get out that map Beth, and shine a light on it. I got an idea." He said, a twinkle in his eye.

My phone rang and I answered it. Dean.

"Hey, you gotta give us a minute." I said into the phone.

"_I don't have a minute. What are we doing?" _Dean said, his voice slightly panicked.

"Ahh. Let me get back to you!" I said, hanging up, not wanting to think of Dean's facial expression right then.

"Call Cassie, we need some information and it has to be exactly right." John instructed me, I was already dialling the number before he finished the sentence.

I hung up with Cassie, looking over where John had drawn a mark on the map. I phoned Dean back and he answered, deadpan.

"_This better be good."_ He said.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"_In the middle of nowhere with a killer truck on my ass! That's where I am! It's like it knows I put the torch to Cyrus." _Dean was sounding his usual chipper self in the face of danger.

"Listen to me, this is important." I said angrily. "I have to know exactly where you are!"

There was a pause and then Dean's voice came back on the line. _"Decatur road, about two miles off the highway."_

"OK. Headed east?" I asked, as John pointed out roads on the map.

"_Yes!" _Came the reply. There was a sickening sound of metal scraping against metal as Dean let out a shout. _"You son of a bitch!" _Came the curse.

"Tell him to make a right." John said, looking at me.

"OK, turn right. Up ahead, turn right." I said, looking at where John indicated on the map. There was the sound of tires squealing but no reply from Dean.

"Did you make the turn?" I asked.

"_Yeah I made the turn! You need to move this thing along a little faster!"_

"All right, you see a road up ahead?" I asked, concentrating.

"_No! Wait. No, yes, I see it." _Dean said.

"Turn left." I instructed.

"_Wha?" _Came the reply. I waited. _"All right, now what?"_

John was gesturing at me, wanting the phone.

"Dean, it's me. You need to go seven tenths of a mile and then stop." John said.

There was a pause as I assumed Dean was questioning the 'stop' order.

"Exactly seven tenths Dean." John ordered.

We waited.

"Dean, you still there?" John asked. "What's happening?"

There was a pause and Dean must have asked what to do because John answered him: "Just what you are doing, bringing it to you." I looked up, uncertainty in my eyes.

There was a yell over the phone, even I could hear it, and then John handed me the phone.

"Dean. You still there? Dean?" I asked urgently.

"_Where'd it go?" _Dean's voice came back on the phone.

"Dean, you're where the church was." I said, looking at the map.

"_What church?" _He asked.

"The place that Cyrus burned down. Murdered all those kids." I answered. There was another pause.

"_There's not a whole lot left." _Came the reply.

John took the phone from me again, explaining to Dean.

"Church ground is hallowed ground, whether the church is still there or not. Evil spirits cross over hallowed ground, sometimes they're destroyed, so I figured, maybe that would get rid of it."

There was a sound of Dean yelling at his father, something about what if it hadn't worked... I grinned.

"Huh. Honestly that thought hadn't occurred to me." John said and I stared as he hung up on Dean's ranting. The man was a genius, but he was also mad. You could see where Dean got it from.

John turned to me, putting his arm around my neck and pulling me back to the road.

"Good job Bethie." He praised and I smiled, wrapping my arm around him.

"Thanks, Dad." I said.

"Did you get things sorted out with Dean?" He asked, looking at me.

"Yeah... we're good." I said, nodding.

"Good." He said with a smile, laying a kiss on my forehead. "Very good."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

* * *

_The song for this chapter is Jason Derulo's "The Other Side". Love it!_  
_If you have any other songs that would suit this chapter, do share :) I need to pad out my Dean & Beth playlist :D_

* * *

_Next up: The Benders, probably from Dean's POV... or a combo. Fun times :) Might be a couple of days as I have an interview for a part time job tomorrow – first time since I had my baby and it's kinda a big deal – plus it's his 2year birthday, so family time is kind of expected LOL_

* * *

_Thank you for all the great feedback and ideas for future episodes! I'm loving it :) I try not to plan too far ahead, but it's always great to get some different ideas from people who are into the story._

* * *

_Question: Should Ben have been Dean's real son, or not? Hmm? Also, has anyone ever noticed the inconsistency with wiping Lisa and Ben's memories to "protect" them? Doesn't make a lot of sense, because it's Dean's attachment to them that is the danger, so long as he has an attachment to them, they can be used against him / to manipulate him. So my opinion is that Castiel actually should have removed the memory of them from Dean as well – thoughts? (Or did that happen and I missed it?) LOL_

* * *

_Mmmm, and just have to shout out to the yummy Jeremy Renner and delicious Gemma Arterton in Hansel and Gretel … couldn't help myself. They're one of my favourite ships – incest and all ;)_


	14. The Benders

_'Cause I'm broken when I'm open__  
__And I don't feel like I am strong enough__  
__'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome__  
__And I don't feel right when you're gone away_

* * *

**THE BENDERS**

* * *

_**BETH'S POV  
**_**Hibbing, Minnesota**_**  
**_

As far as hair-brained schemes go, this was one of Dean's better ones. I took a moment to appreciate the look of his ass in the brown pants of the Sheriff's outfit he was now sporting. Dean had already made it known to me what his plans for the costumes were later, and I smiled to myself.

We were standing in the living room of Mrs McKay, following up and missing person's report where Evan McKay had reportedly seen someone get pulled under a van by a monster – he hadn't been seen since.

"I know you're just doing your job, but the police have been here all week already. I don't see why we have to go through this again. The more he tells the story, the more he believes it's true." Mrs McKay said, looking at us.

"Mrs. McKay, we know you spoke with the local authorities." I said, removing my sheriff's hat, Dean followed suit.

"But, uh, this seems like a matter for the state police, so…. " Dean didn't complete the sentence, glancing at me.

"Don't worry about how crazy it sounds, Evan. You just tell us what you saw." I asked the boy with a smile.

The boy was about ten years old, and he looked agitated. Probably more at his mother, than at what he'd actually witnessed. "I was up late, watching TV. When I heard this weird noise." Evan said, looking at us.

"What did it sound like?" I asked.

"It sounded like….a monster." Evan said. Dean and I exchanged looks, curious.

"Tell the officers what you were watching on TV." Mrs McKay said, rolling her eyes.

"Um... Godzilla Vs. Mothra." Evan said, swallowing. Dean flashed him a smile.

"That's my favourite Godzilla movie. It's so much better than the original, huh?" Dean said excitedly to Evan.

"Totally!" Evan said.

"Yeah." Dean said, nodding toward me. "She likes the remake." He said shaking his head.

"Yuck!" Evan said, both he and Dean looked at me. I glared at Dean and cleared my throat. Dean shrugged and stopped laughing.

"Evan, did you see what this thing was?" I asked.

"No. But I saw it grab Mr. Jenkins. It pulled him underneath the car." Evan said.

"Then what?" I asked.

"It took him away. I heard the monster leaving. It made this really scary sound." Evan told us.

"What did it sound like, Evan?" Dean asked.

"Like this…whining growl." Dean and I exchanged looks at this comment.

"Thanks for your time." I said with a smile to Mrs McKay.

* * *

**_Beth's POV  
_****Bar - Kugel's Keg****_  
_**

Dean and I were playing darts, he was winning, I was pretending that I was letting him win, even if I wasn't. I frowned. We hadn't been spending a lot of time in bars lately, not since John had disappeared. I used to be a lot better at this game.

Sam was seated a table nearby, laptop in front of him doing research. I was thankful someone was doing it, because I wasn't in the mood at all for it. Sam sipped on a beer and I took another swig of my own, enjoying the feel of the alcohol running down the back of my neck.

Dean tossed his remaining darts at the board, bullseye. I frowned.

"So, local police have now ruled out foul play. Apparently there were signs of a struggle." Sam said.

"Well, they could be right, it could just be a kidnapping. Maybe this isn't our kind of gig." Dean said shrugging. I collected the darts and took my turn.

"Yeah, maybe not. Except for this—Dad marked the area, Dean." Sam said, pointing to John's journal sitting on the table. Dean walked over to take a look while I took my shots.

"Possible hunting grounds of a phantom attacker." Dean said thoughtfully, reading from the journal.

"Why would he do that?" I asked, throwing a dart and hitting the outer rim with a frown.

"Well, he found a lot of local folklore about a dark figure that comes out at night. Grabs people, then vanishes. He found this too—this county has more missing persons per capita than anywhere else in the state." Sam informed me.

"That is weird." Dean said, taking a swig of his beer.

"Yeah." Sam said.

"Don't phantom attackers usually snatch people from their beds? Jenkins was taken from a parking lot." I took another shot and missed the board completely, throwing my hands up in the air in disgust. Dean shook his head, trying to hide a smile.

"Well, there are all kinds. You know, Springhill Jacks, phantom gassers. They take people anywhere, anytime. Look, guys, I don't know if this is our kind of gig either." Sam confessed. I stared at him thoughtfully, before looking at my remaining dart with a sigh.

"Well maybe we should ask around more tomorrow?" I suggested, getting in position for my last throw.

"Yeah, we can do that." Dean agreed, moving in behind me, hands on my hips. I threw him a curious look and he grinned, taking my hand with the dart in his. I leaned in to him, allowing him to guide my throw, he jerked my hand forward and the dart hit the board, perfect bullseye.

"Dammit." I muttered, shaking my head. He chuckled and kissed the side of my neck.

"Right." Sam said, watching us and shaking his head. "I saw a motel about five miles back." He said, taking out his wallet.

Dean frowned at him. "Whoa, whoa, easy. Let's have another round." He said, stepping back to the table.

"We should get an early start." Sam said.

"Yeah, you really know how to have fun, don't you, Grandma?" Dean asked with a smirk. Sam smiled at Dean, giving him the usual staring match. I rolled my eyes and drained the rest of my beer, putting the empty on the table.

Dean sighed, losing the battle of wills with Sam. "Alright, I'll meet you outside, I gotta take a leak." He said, kissing my cheek before grabbing his coat and heading for the bathroom.

I helped Sam gather his research and put it in his messenger bag. We grabbed our coats and headed for the door.

There were a couple of bikes pulled up to bar when we exited. I grinned and wandered over to them, throwing Sam and excited look. He shook his head at me and kept walking toward the Impala.

I was wearing blue bootleg cut jeans, black biker boots and my black leather jacket, and I was in the mood for a ride. The Harleys in front of me weren't my Moto Guzzi, but it didn't matter, a bike is a bike. I jumped on to the seat of one of the bikes, it felt good just to feel the firm seat beneath me, to stretch my arms out to take the handle bars and imagine the feel of the air against me as rode.

I looked over at Sam, now at the Impala a few yards away. He'd put John's journal on the hood of the car along with his bag, and was looking under the car with a flashlight. I frowned, squinting to see what he was up to. Suddenly he jumped back and a cat howled at him, running out from beneath the car. I laughed, and saw Sam shake his head, looking back at me as he got to his feet.

He walked behind the Impala toward a campervan, I watched him, curious what he was doing. Suddenly Sam disappeared from view. I had a moment to panic and then I was off the bike, running for the van.

"Hey!" I yelled, seeing someone in a hooded cloak dragging Sam toward the van. "Hey!" He looked startled, I don't think he'd seen me in the shadows, and certainly wasn't expecting an attack. I rounded him with a kick to the shin, dropping him to the ground with a thud, but was pounced by a second someone, also in a hooded cloak. He clipped me in the head from the side and I staggered against the car nearest me.

I swung around with a punch, getting the original person in the stomach, he doubled over as I grabbed the second one by the arm and flipped him over my head. Sam was lying unconscious, I looked over at him momentarily, and then it all went black. I never saw it coming.

* * *

_**Dean's POV  
**_**Bar - Kugel's Keg**

I couldn't believe Sam was being such a stick in the mud. Would have been nice to spend some time with him and Beth, just having a little fun. I took a moment to wonder why it was that I seemed to always draw the short end of the stick when it came to the jobs we did. Why couldn't we just have a little fun for a change?

I finished up in the bathroom, washing my hands and shaking them dry as I went back to the bar. I sighed at the sight before me, and I made up my mind. Beth and I were going to stay for at least a few more rounds and a game of darts. I don't know what had happened to her game, but she needed some practice! Those sheriff outfits could wait until later.

With a smile on my face, thinking about getting her back into the bar, I exited into the parking lot, fully intending to read Sammy the riot act if he wanted to be a pain in the ass. There was a cat sitting on the car next to the Impala, this seemed a little odd to me, but at least it wasn't on my car, I wouldn't have been too damn impressed with that.

That's when I spotted Dad's journal, just sitting there in the open, on top of the car hood. I frowned and picked it up, some of the pages were blowing in the wind. I closed it up and held it while I looked around the parking lot. The windows on the Impala were pretty fogged up, so I opened the door just to check that they weren't in there, but I knew in my gut they weren't. I looked around again, a sickening feeling settling into my stomach. The Impala and the lot were empty.

A group of people came out of the bar and I went up to a drunk couple who were leaning on each other for support.

"Hey, you guys been outside, around here in the last hour or so?" I asked. They shook their heads no, and I took a deep breath, wandering further into the parking lot.

"Beth!" I yelled. Looking around for her. "Sammy!"

Nothing. I looked all over the parking lot, my eyes finally noticing a surveillance camera on top of a streetlight. I walked into the road to get a better look at it, looking around the area, hoping to see her at any moment skipping up to me with that little gait of hers, hair flipping around behind her back, quirky smile on her lips. But she was nowhere to be seen. "Beth!" I muttered, fighting the rising panic in my chest, she was gone, and so was Sam.

* * *

**_Dean's POV  
_****Sheriff's Department  
****_The following morning_****  
**

I felt like shit, I hadn't slept at all, driving around the neighbourhood looking for Sam and Beth. I'd finally gotten a room to try and catch a little shut eye, but it was big and empty without the others to fill it, the bed cold without Beth to share it. All I'd succeeded in doing was tossing and turning until I couldn't take it any more, and I'd returned to the Impala to continue driving around. I had grabbed my fake police ID at first light and headed down to the local cop shop.

A deputy saw me once I got into the station. She looked over my ID and handed it back.

"So, what can we do for you, Officer Washington?" She asked. Her hair was the same colour as Beth's I lamented, but her eyes were blue – not brown, and she seemed a little more jaded by life. Beth always seemed so positive, which was odd given our lives.

"I'm working a missing persons." I told her.

"I didn't know the Jenkins case was being covered by the state police." She said, looking confused.

"Oh, no. No, there's someone else. Actually, it's my cousin. We were having' a few last night at this bar down by the highway. And I haven't seen him since." I didn't tell her about Beth, that would be like bringing up my own name, as far as the authorities knew, we were both dead.

"Does your cousin have a drinking problem?" She asked, looking at me.

"Sam? Two beers and he's going karaoke." I laughed. She smiled at me. "No, he wasn't drunk. He was taken." I said, looking at her with a certainty in my eyes.

She nodded at me and moved to the desk behind her, waving me into the admin area. ""Alright. What's his name?" She asked, looking at me.

"Winchester. Sam Winchester." I said.

She sat down at her computer. "Like the rifle?" She asked.

"Like the rifle." I confirmed, sitting down at the other side of her desk, watching as she opened up a program on her screen. She entered Sam's name and waited for his police record to load. She took a while to look at the page, clicking on a couple of other pages before turning to me.

"Samuel Winchester. So, you know that his brother, Dean Winchester, died in St. Louis. And, uh, was suspected of murder?"

I smiled, nonchalantly at her. "Yeah... Dean. Kind of the black sheep of the family." I chuckled. "Handsome though." I added.

She looked at me. "Uh-huh." I grimaced and waited for her to do her thing, typing into the computer, bringing up other reports and so on.

"Well, he's not showing up in any current field reports." She reported to me.

"Oh, I already have a lead. I saw a surveillance camera by the highway." I said, leaning forward.

"Uh-huh. The county traffic cam?" She asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm thinking the camera picked up whatever took them... him. Or, whoever."

I frowned at the slip, mentally reprimanding myself for being so sloppy.

"Well, I have access to the traffic cam footage down at the county works department, but—well, anyhow, let's do this the right way." The deputy said, standing and going to select some paperwork from a filing cabinet nearby.

"Why don't you fill out a missing persons report and sit tight over here?" She said, handing me a clipboard with the paperwork.

"Officer, look, uh, he's family. I kind of—I kind of look out for the kid. You gotta let me go with you." I asked.

"I'm sorry, I can't do that." She said, looking apologetically at me.

I looked down, fighting off the frustration I was feeling.

"Well, tell me something. Your county has its fair share of missing persons. Any of 'em come back?" I asked. She looked at me sadly. I took it as a no. "Sam's my responsibility. And he's coming back. I'm bringing him back." And Beth along with him, I added silently. I looked at my watch, it'd been 10 hours, and 23 minutes since they'd gone missing. Almost 11 hours and I was falling behind in the game, I didn't like it. There was this sick feeling in my stomach, I fought it down, refusing to go there – to look at the what ifs. What ifs and possible outcomes weren't going to get them back, I had to focus.

The deputy stared at me, she must have seen some of the desperation in my eyes because her eyes softened a little, and she nodded at me.

"OK. OK. I'll take a look at the traffic cams and let you know what I find." She relented. I smiled my gratitude to her and went to get some fresh air, it was getting stuffy inside, I felt like the walls were closing in.

It had been twelve hours and counting by the time Kathleen, the deputy, found me sitting on the park bench outside the police station.

"Greg." She called out, I stood up and turned to walk over to her. "I think we've got something." She handed me a handful of printouts, they were of traffic cam images.

"These traffic cams take an image every three seconds, as part of the Amber Alert program. These images were all taken around the time that your cousin, Sam, disappeared." She explained.

I frowned, there were shots of nothing but empty road, a few cars... "This really isn't what I'm looking for." I muttered.

"Just wait, wait – next one." She said, leaning over my arm to point to another page. I turned it, there was an image of a rusty truck with a makeshift camper on the back.

"Look at the back end." Kathleen said. "Now look at the plates." She said, turning to the next page.

"Oh, the plates look new. It's probably stolen." I said.

"So, whoever's driving that rust bucket must be involved." Kathleen said, looking up at me with those blue puppy dog eyes.

There was a loud whining sound as an old beat-up black van drove past us. It caught my attention, and I looked it over.

"Hear that engine?" I asked, nodding.

"Yeah." She said.

"King of a whining growl, isn't it?" I said, commenting on the sound, remembering Evan's comments from last night.

"Sure." Kathleen agreed, looking at me.

"I'll be damned." I muttered.

* * *

_**Beth's POV**_

I came to, tied to a wooden chair. I looked around with a gasp, there was a ringing in my head from where I'd been hit last night. There was sunlight shining through the window, _how long had I been out? _I squinted in the darkness, trying to get my bearings, but it wasn't easy to see.

"She's awake ." Came a voice behind me and I swivelled to look, trying not to show my rising panic. _Where was Sam?_

The door in front of me opened and a hunched over figure in a long black robe came into the room.

"Who are you? Where's my brother?" I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

"I'd be more worried about yerself right now, little lady." The man said to me. I stared him down, I couldn't make out much with the hood on, but he sounded human.

"You got yerself in a right little pickle, you do." He said with a chuckle.

I frowned, trying to pull at the ropes tied to my hands.

"So what's your story?" I asked. "Can't get yourself a date?" I asked with a smirk. "Got to resort to kidnapping women off the street?"

The figure came up to me, facing profile so I couldn't look him in the face. But I smelled his breath, it was putrid, smelling of old cigar smoke and liver. I grimaced and turned to look away before I dry retched.

"We don't usually bother with the girls..." He said, looking me over. He ran a hand along my shoulder and down over a breast, lingering a while before dropping it to his side. I shuddered and took a deep breath. "Too weak. Don't put much of a fight." He said, and I turned to look at him, curious.

"She's powerful strong. Flipped Jared right on his back." Said the other man in the room.

"Pretty sad when it takes three people to subdue a girl, isn't it?" I taunted, remembering that someone else must have been there to knock me out.

They didn't take the goad. The first figure turned to look at the other one, also in a long black robe.

"Put her in with the others." He instructed and left the room.

"Wait, where's my brother?! What have you done with him?" I called out, struggling against the ropes. The second man came up and back handed me across the cheek. I grimaced and coughed, feeling blood in my mouth. I stared at him defiantly.

He undid the ropes that were securing me to the chair, but not those around my feet and hands. Effortlessly he hoisted me over his shoulder, my head hanging down his back as he carried me out of the house.

I bit my lip and waited to see where I was being taken. I was carried and dumped like a sack of potatoes the inside of a barn, the other man I had attacked last night was there with a gun, and he pointed it at me.

"Don't do anythin' stupid." He commanded and I nodded. The first one cut the ropes binding me and pulled me to my feet. They both took an arm and pushed me toward the door leading me further into the barn, leaving the gun by the door.

"Where are you taking me? What do you want with me?" I asked, my questions falling on deaf ears. I was roughly pushed ahead into a maze of metal cages behind another door. My heart started to race at the sight of them, what the hell was going on?

"Where's my brother? What are you going to do with me?" I asked again, the words just falling out of my mouth.

"Beth?!" I nearly cried at the sound of Sam's voice.

"Sam!" I struggled against the man but I didn't have the element of surprise this time, and they were too strong. I couldn't fight both of them.

Sam was in a cage, grasping at the metal bars. "Beth! Are you ok?" He asked urgently, peering at me. There was a clicking sound and Sam's cage door swung open.I was roughly thrown into his arms and the door slammed shut. Our captors left without a further word and I grabbed at Sam, wrapping my arms around his waist in a hug, reassuring myself that he was actually there.

"Are you ok?" He asked again, looking at me with worry.

"Yeah." I said, putting my hand up to my cheek and flinching a little when I touched where I'd been hit. "I'll live." I said with a grimace.

"Where are we?" He asked.

I shrugged. "On a farm somewhere, by the looks of outside. I think we're pretty remote." He frowned.

There was a groan from the cage across the walkway from us. A man sat up and looked over at us. Sam moved to talk to him through the bars closest him.

"You're alive." Sam said. The man groaned. "Hey, you ok?" Sam asked.

"Does it look like I'm doin' ok?" The man groaned back at him. He looked dirty and dishevelled. He'd been here a few days so it wasn't surprising. I surmised that this was the man who Evan had been talking about going missing. We'd found him, but probably not in the best of circumstances.

"You're Alvin Jenkins, aren't you?" Sam asked, looking at him.

The man looked at him a moment before replying. "Yeah."

"We were looking for you." Sam sighed.

"Oh yeah?" He asked, glancing at me then back at Sam.

"Yeah." Sam said.

"Well, no offense, but this is a piss-poor rescue." He said gruffly.

"Well, our brother's out there right now, too. He'll be looking for us. So..." Sam was interrupted by the man.

"So he's not gonna find us. We're in the middle of nowhere." He said, nodding toward the door. "Waiting for them to come back and do God knows what to us."

"What are they?" Sam asked.

"What are you talking about?" Jenkins asked with a snort.

"They're human." I said deadpan. Sam looked at me in surprise.

"Just people?" He said. I nodded.

"Yeah. What'd you expect?" Jenkins asked.

Sam and I just looked at each other with a smile. I sat in the corner of the cage and looked around. There was a sound of the door opening again, and the two men in black cloaks walked back in. One of them went over to Jenkins' cage and kicked it, Jenkins scooted back into the far corner. The other man went to a panel of buttons in the middle of the room, I watched as he took out a key and inserted it, twisting it to unlock Jenkins' cage.

Jenkins started to freak out, yelling at them. "Leave me alone! Don't you take me, leave me alone!" The man slid a plate of food to Jenkins, shutting the door, going back to the panel where they turned the key again, causing the lock to slide into place. They left while Jenkins started to eat the food put in front of him.

"How often do they feed you?" Sam asked.

"Once a day. And they use that thing over there to open the cage." He pointed to the panel.

"That's the only time you see them?" Sam asked.

"So far. But I'm waitin'" Jenkins replied.

"Waiting for what?" I asked, looking over at him.

"Ned Beatty time." He said soberly.

Sam snorted, moving around the cage. "I think that's the least of your problems right now." He said. I pulled my legs up and wrapped my arms around them, flinching at the memory of that brief touch from earlier. Sam paused and looked at me, coming to crouch in front of me.

"Oh yeah?" Jenkins said. "What do you think they want then?"

Sam ignored him for a moment and looked me in the eyes. "Did they hurt you?" He asked quietly. I shook my head, but my eyes showed him that I wasn't sure it was going to stay that way. He sighed, squeezing my arm. "Dean'll find us." He promised, and I nodded, resting against the bars.

"Well, what do you think they want?" Jenkins asked again, looking over at us with a frown.

"Depends on who they are." Sam answered, reaching through the top of the cage and grabbing a long metal wire that stretched from the top of the pole to the ground. He threw all his weight into it.

"They're a bunch of psycho hillbilly rednecks, if you ask me. Lookin' for love in all the wrong places." Jenkins said. I sighed.

* * *

_**Dean's POV**_

We were in the squad car doing a tour along the remote highway where the last traffic camera had last picked up the truck. Kathleen pointed to a traffic camera as we passed it.

"OK. The next traffic cam is fifty miles from here, and the pickup didn't pass that one, so..." Her voice trailed off.

"So, it must've pulled off somewhere." I finished for her, peering out into the darkness. There was nothing to see, I sighed in frustration, the trail was getting colder and I didn't like it.

"I didn't see any other roads here." I said, gesturing to the map on my knees.

"Well, a lot of these backwoods properties have their own private roads." She said softly.

"Great!" I said, annoyed. I ran a hand over my face, how long had it been since I'd slept? Had to be going on 40 hours now at least.

The computer in the car beeped and Kathleen looked at the screen. She clicked the highlighted item and read whatever it was she was looking at.

"So, Gregory?" She asked tentatively. I turned back to her and she looked concerned.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I ran your badge number. It's routine when we're working a case with state police. For accounting purposes and what have you." She explained.

"Mmhmm." I nodded.

"And, uh, they just got back to me." She said, pulling the car over to the side of the road. I started to feel that nausea coming back but kept my face cool, calm and collected. Poker face.

"It says here your badge was stolen." She said.

I looked at her shocked.

"And there's a picture of you." She said, turning the computer to me. On the screen was a heavy African-American man. _Shit. _

"I lost some weight." I chuckled, looking at her, feeling a slight panic rising in my chest. "And I got that Michael Jackson skin disease." I added, with a smile.

Kathleen took off her seat belt and looked at me. "OK. Would you step out of the car, please?"

"Look, look, look." I said, giving in. "If you want to arrest me, that's fine. I'll cooperate, I swear. But, first, please – let me find Sam." I asked, holding a hand out to her.

"I don't even know who you are. Or is this Sam person is missing." She said, frowning.

"Look, it's not just Sam. There's a girl too, she's been taken. I just didn't want to say anything because she's... well... I didn't think you'd listen if I brought her into it, but it's not like them to just disappear. They've been taken, and they'll be counting on me to come find them." I said. She looked doubtful.

"Look into my eyes and tell me if I'm lying about this." I said, trying to convince her.

"Identity theft? You're impersonating an officer." She said.

I sighed. I really didn't want to have to take her out, but if it came down to it, I was going to have to, and she seemed like a decent person.

"Look, here's the thing. When we were young, I pretty much pulled Sammy from a fire. And ever since then, I've felt responsible or him. Similar thing with her. It's my job to keep them safe. I'm just afraid if we don't find them fast … please." I begged. I felt the uncomfortable feeling of tears in my eyes and blinked them back, I had to be strong, for Sam and Beth. "They're my family."

Kathleen was shaking her head, looking out the window. "I'm sorry. You've given me no choice. I have to take you in." She said, looking back out the window. There was a pause, and I was thinking about how I was going to get out when she spoke again.

"After we find Sam Winchester... and the girl." She said sighing and fastening her seatbelt. I looked at her confused. I didn't know what had just happened, but for some reason she had backed right down. Maybe I hadn't misjudged her after all. I blew out a sigh of relief.

"Who is the girl?" She asked, pulling back on to the road.

"Beth..." I said quietly, looking down at my hands.

"Your girlfriend?" She asked, glancing over at me. I laid my head back against the head rest and blew out a long breath I hadn't realised I was holding.

"Yeah..." I said.

"Must be terrifying, having them both missing." She said quietly, looking back at the road.

"You have no idea." I said, turning to stare out the window at the rain.

"Yeah, actually I do..." I thought I heard her whisper. I turned back to her.

"Huh?"

"Oh nothing." She said, looking over at me with a sympathetic look. "Let's just find them, quick." She said. I smiled and went back to my thoughts. I didn't know where Beth was, but there was a darkness threatening to take me over, a desperation sitting just inside my chest. I fought it down, swallowing hard, and trying to think of something else. We'd find them, we had to, I didn't have the option to fail on this one.

* * *

_**Beth's POV  
Barn**_

Sam was still trying to pull at the metal coil, he'd been working at it all day, daylight was fading quickly outside, and I didn't fancy being here during the night.

"What's your name again?" Jenkins asked him.

"It's Sam." He grunted in reply.

"Why don't you give it up Sammy, there's no way out." Jenkins said with a sigh.

I chucked, knowing how much Sam reacted to that name, wouldn't be good coming from someone other than myself, and even I didn't use it much.

"Don't... call me... Sammy!" He said, right on cue, and he groaned from the strain of pulling on the coil. The extra adrenaline from the _Sammy _comment seemed to have done the trick because the coil fell to the ground, pulling a piece of metal with it. I sat up, looking at it curiously.

"What is it?" I asked. Sam picked it up and looked at it thoughtfully.

"It's a bracket." Sam answered.

"Well thank God, a bracket. Now we've got 'em, huh?!" Jenkins laughed from his cage. I smiled, the guy was a bit of comic relief if nothing else.

Suddenly the lock to Jenkins' cage opened and the door swung open a little.

"Must've been a short." Jenkins said, climbing out of the cage. "Maybe you knocked something loose." He said to Sam.

"I think you should get back in there, Jenkins." Sam said, I nodded my agreement.

"What?" Jenkins asked, looking at us both like we were mad.

"This isn't right." I said, peering out toward the entrance.

"Don't you wanna get out of here?" Jenkins asked.

"Yeah, but that was too easy." Sam said with a frown.

Jenkins was too busy thinking about his newly found freedom to listen. "Look," he said. "I'm gonna get out of here, and I'm gonna send help, ok? Don't worry." He said.

"No, serious Jenkins. This might be a trap." I said, crouching near him.

"Bye Sammy... Beth." He pushed open the door and walked out. Sam looked panicked.

"Jenkins!" Sam called out. But the man was gone. Suddenly the door to Jenkins' cage swung shut again and locked. That had been no short, he'd been set free. I exchanged a look with Sam that told me he was thinking the same thing.

"Oh God. This is bad Sam." I said, looking around. Sam was moving around the cage, banging at it again.

A short while later we heard screaming. Jenkins. I sank into a corner with a sigh, wondering just what was happening. They'd said they wanted strong people, men... but I'd proven strong. What on earth were they going to do to us? Whatever it was it didn't sound good. Sam looked on, grimly. We had to come up with a way to get out.

* * *

_**Dean's POV  
Back in town**_

38 hours had passed now. I was gulping back a large coffee, walking with Kathleen toward the squad car. Daylight had come and we were losing valuable time, but it was slow going searching the properties for Sam and Beth. Each time we thought we'd found something I felt a slight hope flicker, but mostly I was starting to feel numb. At least the numbness was better than feeling desperate.

"Hey, Officer? Look, I don't mean to press my luck." I said to her, she looked at me with an amused smile.

"Your luck is so pressed." She said seriously, and I nodded.

"Right. I was wondering – why are you helping me out anyway? Why don't you just lock me up?" I said. Kathleen paused, thinking, and then looked back up at me.

"My brother Riley, disappeared three years ago. A lot like Sam and Beth, but it was only him, not two. We searched for him, but – nothing. I know what it's like to feel responsible for someone, and for them. Come on. Let's keep at it." She got into the car.

We were driving along the edge of forest when I spotted it. A little dirt track leading out to a property. It was the first one I'd seen in a while along this stretch of the road, it had to be something.

"Wait, wait, wait – pull over here. Pull over." I said to Kathleen. Once we'd stopped I jumped out of the car. "It's the first turn-off I've seen so far." I said.

She nodded. "You stay here, I'll check it out." I gaped at her. Stay here? Was she nuts?

"No way." I said, giving her a look that pretty much said what I'd just been thinking.

"Hey." She said, and she stopped walking. "You're a civilian. And a felon, I think. I'm not taking you with me."

"You're not going without me." I said. She sighed and relented.

"All right. You promise you won't get involved? You'll let me handle it?" She asked.

Well I could promise all she wanted, I would do things my way just like I always did. But that wasn't going to get her off my back so I just told her what she wanted to hear.

"Yeah, I promise." I said.

"Shake on it." She said with those big puppy dog eyes. She held out her hand and I went to shake on it. As soon as she had my hand she slapped some cuffs on my wrist. _Damn it! Should have seen that coming!_

"Awww, come on!" I groaned. She just smiled. She pushed me over to the car and attached the other cuff to the car door handle, starting to walk away.

"This is ridiculous!" I called out. "Kathleen, I really think you're going to need my help!"

"I'll manage." She said softly. "Thank you." She beeped the car locked and started walking down the driveway. I groaned and leaned back against the car.

"I gotta start carrying paper-clips," I muttered to myself, looking around for something to pick the lock with.

She'd been gone about five minutes, maybe ten, I was trying to reach for the car antenna, it was the best chance I had of getting free of the cuffs. I heard the screech of the pick up truck and sighed.

"Oh, son of a bitch." I muttered under my breath. I had to get to that antenna. I pulled as hard as I could on the cuff, trying to get just a little more leverage. It was enough. I had the antenna and started unscrewing it. It was the longest thirty seconds of my life, but finally it fell to the ground. I slid down beside the car for cover and picked up the antenna, working furiously at the lock.

I could hear footsteps coming up the drive, two guys were coming toward the car. There was a conversation about someone being angry about the police being involved, I missed half of it because I was busy ducking for cover, running for the trees as soon as I was free of the cuffs.

* * *

_**Beth's POV  
Barn**_

I was sitting next to Sam, head on his shoulder, picking at the straw on the ground. Daylight had come hours ago but we hadn't seen hide nor hair of our captors. I was both relieved and worried at the same time over that.

The door opened and we came to attention, wondering what was going to happen next. The men who had brought me in to the barn were now dragging another woman down from the entry. She looked a little worse for wear, her hair was messed up and she was dressed in brown pants and a white t-shirt that was now dirty. They tossed her into the cage Jensen had been in, and locked the door, leaving without saying so much as one word to us.

It was only a few minutes before she woke up, sitting up with a groan, rubbing her head.

"Are you all right?" Sam asked her, moving to the edge of the cage.

"Are you Sam Winchester?" She asked, looking at him, then me.

"Yeah." Sam answered, surprised.

"Your, uh, your cousin's looking for you." She said, I stood up at this, hopeful. Sam looked at me, relief evident in his eyes.

"Thank God," I said. "Where is he?"

"I, uh – I cuffed him to my car." She said a little sheepishly.

"Oh." I said, biting my lip. Sam sighed and started looking around for ways to escape again.

* * *

_**Dean's POV  
Woods**_

While they'd been moving the cop car, I headed into the woods, following the trail down to the property roughly, staying clear of anywhere that I might be spotted. I now crouched just outside a barn, observing. It seemed to me that a big old barn would be the first place to start looking for someone being held captive – or was that too simple? I cast a gaze around the property, nothing special about it, pretty run down actually and decided that maybe simple fit for these people.

Keeping low I ran across the clearing to the barn, slipping inside before I was seen. It was lit up OK, I could see where I was going. I found myself in a little room which opened into the main barn. I thought I heard talking and headed for it, opening the door slowly while looking around for some kind of a weapon.

I saw Sam almost as soon as I got into the main part of the barn, he was locked in a cage.

"Sam?" My voice echoed through the barn and I had a moment to remind myself to whisper. Sam smiled at me as I hurried down to the cage. "Are you hurt?" Sam shook his head.

I looked up and saw Beth behind him in the corner, she looked like she was about to cry. When she saw me she crossed the cage and reached out grab my shirt, leaning against the bars.

"Oh Geez, Beth, are you ok?" I asked, the fear and worry I'd been holding on to flooding to the surface, but she was here, in front of me. I reached through the bars and grasped her face in my hands, raising her head to check that she was all right. She nodded, and I looked in her eyes a little longer just to make sure. "You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." She whispered.

"Damn it's good to see you guys." I muttered. I didn't want to let her go, but I had to figure out what came next.

"How did you get out of the cuffs?" Kathleen's voice sounded behind me.

"Oh, I know a trick or two." I said with a grin. She just looked at me confused.

"All right, let's get you out of here." I said, letting go of Beth and moving to look at the locks. I paused, frowning. "Oh these locks look like they're gonna be a bitch." I said to Sam.

Sam pointed to a control panel behind me. "There's some kind of automatic control there."

I looked back at Sam. "Have you seen them?" I asked.

"Yeah. Dude, they're just people." Sam said with a chuckle.

"And they jumped the pair of you?" I snickered, shaking my head. "You guys must be getting a little rusty." Beth threw me a glare, I just made a kissy face back at her and moved to look at the panel. "What do they want?"

"We don't know." Beth said. "They let Jenkins go, but that was some sort of trap. It doesn't make any sense." Her voice was a little scared, and frowned.

"Well, that's the point. You know, with our usual playmates, there's rules, there's patterns." I said, pushing at a power switch and looking around – nothing happened. "But with people, they're just crazy!"

"Did you see anything else out there?" Sam asked me.

"Uh, he has about a dozen junked cars hidden out back. Plates from all over, so I'm thinking when they take someone, they take their car too." I answered, it was a bit puzzling, almost as puzzling as this damn control panel!

"Did you see a black Mustang out there? About ten years old?" Kathleen asked me. I stopped and thought about it.

"Yeah, actually I did." She looked at me sadly. "Your brother's?" I asked. She nodded at me. I sighed. "I'm sorry."

I looked the control panel over again. "Let's get you guys out of here, then we'll take care of those bastards. This thing takes a key." I said, pointing at the panel. "Key?"

"I don't know." Sam said.

"All right, I better go find it." I started to leave.

"Hey." Beth's voice called out to me. I stopped and looked at her, I hated seeing her in there. "Be careful." She said, biting her lip like she does when she's worried.

I crossed back to her really quick, giving her a kiss through the bars. "I'll be back." I promised, it was worth the look from Sam just to see her smile.

I decided to search the house next, climbing through a window leading to the basement and found myself in darkness. I had my flashlight in my pocket and turned it on. The room was filled with shelves holding jars and bottles all with various body parts in them. I grimaced, a shudder going down my spine. _Crazy humans. _"Yikes." I muttered to myself.

I kept looking, and found myself staring at a wall, polaroids stuck to it. All the people in the photos were dead, displayed like some kind of trophy next to two men. There was a fresh photo with Jenkins' corpse in it.

"I'll say it again – demons I get. People are crazy." I muttered. There was a flight of stairs near me and I decided to go up them. I exited the basement and found myself in the living room. There was a record playing. Looking around I spotted a wooden pick leaning against the wall and picked it up. Well, I was now armed at least. I leaned against the wall and inched my way to the kitchen. If you could call it a kitchen.

When I peaked in I saw an old man butchering something in there – a whole bunch of what pretty much amounted to torture implements hung from the ceiling, saws, and picks and god knows what else. _Please don't let it be Jenkins _I thought to myself. _Crazy humans. _The man turned around and I jumped back out of sight. There was a tray of keys on a table nearby and I went to examine it, looking for the key that would control the cages. Next to it was something I wasn't expecting. A jar full of human teeth, I grimaced and set it back down.

There was a creak which set me to spinning around only to find a little girl there, maybe 13 years old, she looked terrified. She was messy, her hair all mussed, dirty dress, and brown teeth that looked like they needed about a dozen good fluoride treatments. I had to get her out of here, who knows what these crazy people had done to her.

"Shh. It's ok. I'm not gonna hurt you." I said, reaching out to her.

"I know." She said smiling. Then suddenly she stabbed me with a knife! I jumped back, she missed me but got my jacket pinned to the wall.

"Daddy!" She yelled. I pulled the knife out, freeing myself from the wall, but they were all on top of me now. The girl was still screaming for her father, and a big fellow got me under the arms. I threw my weight back into him as the other guy came at me, I kicked up with both feet to send him flying, but the big guy threw me into the wall, and then across the room like I was a ragdoll. I dropped the knife upon impact.

Getting my feet under me I stood up, throwing a punch at the bastard and connecting, only to be thrown into the wall again by the other guy. We wrestled for a bit, them getting in a few punches, me landing a few too. I was backed up to a wall, my head was splitting where I'd hit the wall, but I ignored the pain, gauging my opponents.

I looked at the small guy and frowned. "I'm gonna kick your ass first." Looking over at the big guy I pointed at him. "Then yours." They made to move in on me but then everything went black.

* * *

_**Beth's POV  
**__**Barn**__**  
**_

They came into the barn, not dressed in their black robes any more. Apparently there was no need to keep up the pretences that they had been, this was probably a bad thing. Our cage door clicked open and Sam pushed me behind him into the corner. The barrel of a gun pointed in at us. Close, but not close enough for Sam to disarm him.

The man looked at me and gestured that I should follow.

"Yeah, I don't think so buddy." I said, staying behind Sam. The other man had a gun trained on us too. Sam was looking back and forth, considering how we might be able to disarm them and escape without anyone getting hurt.

The bigger guy came into the cage, and Sam rushed him going for the gun, but he was ready for that, he brought the butt of the rifle up to smash Sam in the face and he fell down.

I gasped, but kept my eyes on the guys. I now had two guns on me, if Sam couldn't take them, I didn't like my chances. Where was Dean?

The bigger guy grabbed me by the arm when I hesitated and pulled me out of the cage, slamming it shut. Sam was unconscious, they left him be.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked, struggling, but it was pointless. They bound my hands in front of me and pushed me toward the main house. It had gotten dark out.

"Tie her up over there." A voice said as they pulled me into what could only be called a living room, but it wasn't like any living room I'd ever seen, it looked more like a flea market with bits and pieces of junk everywhere. The man had gestured to a section of the ceiling where there was a low bearing beam and a large hook hanging down from it. The others roughly pushed me up and pulled my hands over my head, stringing me up to the ceiling using the hook.

An older man, real redneck looking, came into the room wearing jean overalls, over a torn shirt and a hunting jacket, crooked brown teeth grinned out at me through a shaggy moustache and beard. He topped the look off with a baseball cap. _Complete redneck, _I thought, rolling my eyes.

"Well haven't you lot just caused me a lick of trouble..." The man drawled, looking me over.

I turned a stony look on him, pushing the mounting fear out of my head. Dean was right, creatures were easy, you understood them. Humans, they were the scary ones.

There was a groan behind me, I recognised it immediately and it caused my heart to stop. _Dean. _The hook allowed me to twist and I turned with a growing sense of horror filling me. Dean was tied to a chair, blood smeared down the right side of his face where he'd been injured. He was waking up and looking around. His eyes widened when he saw me hanging there, and his lips set into a grim line.

"Come on Pa. Let us hunt him." One of the men was saying, he had his hair practically shaved off, and he was tall and well built. I realised he'd been the one I attacked last night, the height gave him away.

"Yeah, this one's a fighter. Sure would be fun to hunt." The other man said with a laugh, Pa joined him.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me. That's what this is about? You yahoos hunt people?" Dean said with a grimace. I hid a smile, he would be cocky to the end.

Pa, as they'd called the redneck old man, was sitting in front of Dean on another chair.

"You ever killed before?" He asked Dean, who regarded him with wary eyes. I bit back a laugh, and Dean rolled his eyes.

"Well, that depends on what you mean." He said, elusive.

"I've hunted all my life. Just like my father, his before him. I've hunted deer and bear – I even got a cougar once. But the best hunt is human. Oh, there's nothin' like it. Holdin' their life in your hands. Seein' the fear in their eyes just before they go dark. Makes you feel powerful alive." Pa said.

"You're a sick puppy." Dean muttered at him.

"We give 'em a weapon. Give 'em a fightin' chance. It's kind of like our tradition passed down, father to son. Of course, only one or two a year. Never enough to bring the law down, we never been that sloppy." Pa continued, telling his story.

Dean shook his head with a laugh. "Yeah, well, don't sell yourself short. You're plenty sloppy."

"So, what, you with that pretty cop?" Pa asked. "Are you a cop?"

Dean frowned at him. "If I tell you, you promised not to make me into an ashtray?" The tall son smacked Dean across the face with that comment and I flinched, tugging at my ropes, I felt them give a little, but not enough. Dean shook his head a bit, reeling from the hit.

"Only reason I don't let my boys take you right here and now is there's somethin' I need to know." Pa said, walking over to the fireplace and taking out a hot poker.

"Yeah?" Dean quipped, putting on a brave face. "How about it's not nice to marry your sister?" He chuckled, I shook my head.

"Tell me – any other cops gonna come lookin' for you?" Pa asked, holding the poker near Dean.

"Oh, eat me." Dean said. "No, no, no, no wait, wait – you actually might." He joked.

"You think this is funny?" Pa roared. "You brought this down on my family!" He looked back at me, I didn't like the way he as looking.

"All right, you wanna play games, let's play. I'm thinking maybe you came here for someone else... the boy... or maybe this pretty thing?" Said Pa, coming to stand beside me. I glanced at him, trying to back away. Dean struggled against his bonds.

"You leave her alone." Dean growled.

"Ahh, there we are boys. We hit a nerve after all." Pa laughed. "Lee here, he thinks ya girl is a reaaal beauty." He said, and the smaller of the sons came up to stand beside me, leering. Dean's eyes flashed furious.

"Looks like we're gonna have a hunt tonight after all, boys." He said to the others in the room, the men looked pleased.

"And you get to pick the animal. The boy or the cop?" He said.

"OK. Wait, wait – look, nobody is coming for me all right? It's just us." Dean said.

"You don't choose, I will." Pa threatened and turned to push the poker against my shoulder. It seared into my skin, burning right through my shirt, I screamed before gasping for breath as he removed the poker finally.

"Oh you _son of a bitch!" _Dean yelled at him.

Lee, the younger brother came up and slid his hands around my waist then, stroking against the skin under my shirt which was hiked up because of the angle of my arms. My breath caught and I closed my eyes against the unwanted touch, whimpering from the burn on my shoulder.

"Hold her." The older man instructed, and I felt my head pulled back roughly, a hand holding my hair.

Pa advanced on me with the hot poker, holding it to my eye. "Next time, I take an eye." Pa threatened calmly.

Dean looked freaked out. "All right, the guy, the guy!" He cried out. "Take the guy!" The poker was removed from my eye and I breathed a sigh of relief, Dean looked at me in panic. Pa took a key from around his neck and tossed it to the younger guy, who released me from his grasp.

"Lee, go do it. Don't let him out though. Shoot him in the cage." Lee walked to the door.

"What?!" Dean said. "I thought you said you were going to hunt him. You were gonna give him a chance." I was beyond panic now, because there was no way out of those cages, Sam was a sitting duck.

"Lee, when you're done with the boy – shoot the cop, too." Pa said, and Lee nodded and left with his rifle. "Better clean this mess up before any more cops come runnin' out here." He said to his other son.

Dean looked scared. I can honestly say I'd never seen him so scared. I looked at him trying to hide my panic.

There was a gunshot and I gasped, Dean was frantic.

"You hurt my brother, I'll kill you, I swear. I'll kill you all. I will kill you all!" Dean shouted at them, struggling against his bonds. The men ignored him, Pa went ot the door, looking for his son to return.

"Lee!" He yelled out and waited for a response. When none was forthcoming he turned to his other son. "Jared, you come with me. Missy, you watch them now." Both men grabbed rifles and left, the little girl who had until now been loitering nearby stood next to Dean, brandishing a knife close to his eye.

"Beth, are you ok?" Dean asked me, I looked at him and nodded.

There was the sound of gunshots coming from the barn and we both looked in that direction. I renewed my struggle against the ropes on me. They were starting to give just a little bit from the weight I was putting on them. I leaned into them, trying to be quiet as the crazy little girl hovered in front of Dean.

Dean tried to distract her, watching me. "So uh... crazy Pa, huh? Did you eat your Mama when she died, or did she just up and leave ya?" The little girl hissed at him, running the blade of the knife along his arm. Dean groaned in anguish, I closed my eyes, I didn't want to watch.

I almost had it. I felt the ropes give enough to wriggle my hands free, and then I was loose. I didn't hesitate, I grabbed the girl by her hair and rammed her head into the wall, hard. She fell to the ground like a crumpled piece of paper.

"Jesus Beth!" Dean gasped at the ferocity behind my attack.

I grabbed the knife and started cutting through the ropes, looking at him with worry. "We have to get to Sam... we have to..." My voice trailed off.

"Beth, Beth... it's ok. We're getting out of here." Dean said, I fought back the tears and nodded, _get it together_, and then he was loose, pulling me in to him. He cast a passing glance at the little girl before grabbing a pick that was lying against the wall discarded, and then guided me out the door

"Stay here?" Dean said hopefully to me and I gaped at him.

"As if!" He shook his head but knew better to argue on this one. We crossed the small clearing to the barn, the doors were wide open where Pa and Jared had entered. It was deadly silent inside, I swallowed hard and looked at Dean, he swung into the barn, pick in front of him as I followed. I saw a hammer on a bench nearby and picked it up, at least I was armed – of a sort. Dean nodded and crossed to the wall near the door leading into the main part of the barn. I took the other side.

Suddenly there were gunshots fired, and sounds of a fight. We ran for the noise, in a corner behind the cages Kathleen was on Jared's back, wrestling with him as he tried to get her off. A shot fired from above us and I looked up to see Pa in the loft, shooting at Sam.

Dean took off, sprinting up the ladder after them, Pa was focused on Sam, stalking him across the walkway of the loft. I ran across to the other pair, who were still wrestling, Jared got the upper hand, staggering back into a pole and winding Kathleen as he slammed her against it. She fell to the ground and he stood over her with a rifle.

"Hey!" I yelled at him and he swung to face me, rifle pointed. I threw the hammer, just as John had taught me and it spun through the air hitting him in the forehead. He staggered, a shot going wild. I didn't hesitate, running for him and hitting him with my shoulder, slamming him into the wall behind him. I had a moment to regret that move as the burn from earlier shot pain through my whole left arm.

I fought my way through it, picking up the rifle which had fallen while Jared blinked at me in pain starting to move for me again. I stepped up and smashed him in the face with the rifle butt again, and again, just to be sure. He slumped to the ground.

Another shot fired above us and Pa was still after Sam. Dean had reached the top of the ladder and was walking quickly, he was furious you could see it in his posture. Pa noticed him too late, swinging to shoot but Dean was already there, he swung the pick around and lodged it in Pa's chest, the old man falling back with a grunt. A swift kick from Sam disarmed the man and he lay on the ground, laughing up at them as Sam retrieved the gun and trained it on the man.

Dean threw a glance down at me, and I took a deep breath of relief. Everyone was down for the count, and we were all safe. He nodded, letting out a long breath and shook his head.

"Crazy humans!" Dean hollered.

* * *

_**Dean's POV**_

Beth hadn't let go of me since we left the house, I didn't want to be obvious about it, but I was kind of grateful she was doing the clingy thing. Saved me from having to get all mushy. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and walked down the porch steps with her and Sam. We'd just gone back in to the house to take care of the little girl that Beth had more or less put through the wall – this time we just locked her in the closet. I was still a bit astounded at Beth's show of anger, but then, she'd had a reason for a lot of rage right in that moment. I would have done it too.

"I think the car is back at the police station." I lamented.

Kathleen was at the front of the house listening on her walkie-talkie to someone. When she got a reply she turned to face us.

"So, state police and the FBI are going to be here within the hour. They're going to want to talk to you." I stared at her for a heartbeat, and her eyes softened. "I suggest that you're all long gone by then." Beth's arm had tensed around my waist, but it relaxed when she heard that. I looked down at her, she was uncharacteristically quiet.

"Thanks," I said. "Hey, listen, I don't mean to press our luck, but we're kind of in the middle of nowhere... think we could catch a ride?" I said to Kathleen.

She smirked and shook her head. "Start walking. Duck if you see a squad car." She grinned. I nodded, fair enough, she'd done enough for me as it was.

"Sounds great to me. Thanks." Sam said, shaking her hand.

"Listen, uh... I'm sorry about your brother." I said to her, kind of awkwardly.

She looked at us, fighting back tears. "Thank you. It was really hard not knowing what happened to him. I thought it would be easier once I knew the truth... but it isn't really." She shrugged. "Anyway, you should go."

I nodded at her and we started to walk away.

Beth's step picked up a little once we were away from the farm, she was holding my hand, walking beside me, Sam on my other side. I had a moment to think about what we'd been through, how close we'd come to losing everything – and then I didn't want to think about that any more.

"Never do that again." I said to them both.

"Do what?" Beth asked me, looking up.

"Go missing like that." I said, stopping and turning her to face me. Sam laughed and clapped me on the back.

"You were worried about us." Sam snorted.

"All I'm saying is... you vanish like that again, I'm not looking for you." But I was staring at Beth who was looking at me with the same relief I was feeling.

Sam started walking again, shaking his head. "Sure you won't." He laughed to himself as he headed down the road.

"I don't ever want to go through that again." Beth said quietly. I pulled her in to kiss her.

"Me neither." I hugged her, careful of her shoulder where we'd patched it up a little with some burn cream and a bandage. I pushed down the guilt, the anger at myself for not being there to protect her, tried not to think about what might have happened.

Sam turned around, walking backwards while he looked at us.

"So you got sidelined by a thirteen-year-old girl, huh?" He asked with a laugh.

"Oh shut up!" I said, fuming.

"Just saying... getting rusty there, kiddo." Sam smirked.

"Shut up!" But we all laughed. It was good to laugh.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

* * *

_Song for this chapter is "Broken" by Seether, featuring Amy Lee._

_I love this song so much! This song could fit for Dean and/or Beth throughout the entire series, it's a ballad to the emptiness inside when they're separated, and also a ballad to the pain caused by the life they lead. Would be more than appropriate to feature in any of the upcoming seasons – after Dean goes to Hell, after Sam goes to Hell, after Purgatory. Man, I just love it!_

_I've been listening to quite a bit of Breaking Benjamin too, very fitting for SPN._  
_I'm also very obsessed with "My Last Breath" by Evanescence right now too._

* * *

_Tara – thanks for your reviews! I've replied to everyone else via PM but since you're a guest, you get your replies here :D_

_Thanks so much for your feedback and suggestions. I've definitely got some fun ideas for 5.04 when I get to it, just waiting to see what way feels right when I'm actually writing it – at the moment I am leaning toward one particular storyline over the others... but that could change – it's a long way off yet!_

_I hadn't really thought about doing a pre-relationship flashback, but now you have me thinking, that could be really, really fun! Jealous Dean would be fun to see! And I know the perfect song – True Love by Pink! Haha - I got inspiration today, it's already started – but it's a few updates away I think._

_Can I ask why the boo for Ben and Lisa? Just curious how everyone feels about the pair, because I was thinking of having them as a side story, but my other option is to write her out completely and just turn her storyline from the canon into Beth's..._

* * *

_Question time: Man I can't think of a question!_

_OK going to go with one I asked one of my readers a while back – which would you do in Season 7?_

_(1) Send Dean to purgatory with Cas (and no Beth)_  
_(2) Send Dean, Cas & Beth to purgatory (together)_  
_(3) Send Dean, Cas & Beth to purgatory (but have them separated)_

_(I already have a fair idea on what I'm doing with it, but always like to get other people's takes on things, if only just to spark fun discussion!)_

* * *

_I had to go back and edit the reason they were all in Ohio from the last story because I realised that they don't know about vampires then, they find out about them in an upcoming episode! So John was chasing a poltergeist instead now :D_

* * *

_Thanks to everyone who wished my little boy a happy birthday – I think he had a good day :D He loved his toys! He's teething (darn 2yo molars!), so a little miserable, poor kid. Interview went well, one of my referees said she got a call, so that's kind of a good sign... haven't heard anything further though. Don't worry, if I get the job it shouldn't slow down the updates too much ;) I'm too obsessed with the story!_

* * *

_As always, would love it if you'd drop me a review, I'm a feedback junkie :D Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this update! Next up, demons, demons and more demons! We're going to explore a little bit of that mystery illness that crops up for Beth from time to time - she thought she was over it... she's nooooot! ;)_


	15. Shadow

_So I'll find what lies beneath__  
__Your sick twisted smile__  
__As I lie underneath__  
__Your cold jaded eyes__  
__Now you turn the tide on me__  
__'Cause you're so unkind__  
__I will always be here__  
__For the rest of my life_

* * *

**SHADOW**

* * *

**Chicago**

I shifted uncomfortably in the alarm system company uniform. It was tight and felt like it was riding up my ass – I twisted to pull at the seat of my pants, sighing. Dean threw me a look that basically said he was happy to incorporate it into some sort of play later on, but today I was feeling irritated, a sick feeling in my stomach had settled in overnight and I was grumpy.

"You know, I've gotta say we did just fine without these stupid costumes when hunting with Dad. I feel like a high school drama dork." I complained, and the boys looked at me, curious. It wasn't like me to whine.

"Hey what was that play you did in high school?" Dean turned to Sam, changing the subject. "Our Town? Yeah, you were good, it was cute." Sam rolled his eyes and looked over at me instead, ignoring his brother.

"Beth, you want to pull this off or not?" He asked gently, turning those puppy dog eyes on me.

I sighed. "I'm just saying... these outfits cost hard-earned money, ok?" I grumbled, coming up with any reason whatsoever to complain.

"Whose?" Sam asked with a smile.

"Well ours of course!" Dean said to him. "You think credit card fraud is easy?" Sam chuckled and Dean reached out to pull on my ponytail.

"Come on apple pie, get over the mood, we got a job to do." He said, looking me in the eyes. His tone was joking, but his eyes were serious, he was a little worried about whatever was bugging me.

"Yeah ok." I sighed, and it earned me a smile. "But I'm still fairly certain you guys got me the wrong size..." I grumbled, pulling at the seat of my pants again.

"Oh I don't know, looks like it fits nice to me!" Dean quipped and I rolled my eyes, stalking off ahead of them to the apartment building we were headed for.

* * *

Once we explained we were with the security company the landlady was happy to show us up to the apartment and let us in to view the scene where a woman had been murdered the week before, slashed and mauled, all while the apartment was completely locked and alarmed from the inside. The unique circumstances had been what caught our attention.

"Thanks for letting us look around." Sam said to the woman as she opened the door.

"Well, the police said they were done with the place, so..." She stepped into the apartment behind us. Dean shut the door to the apartment and noticed that the chain on the door was cut, gesturing with his head.

Sam had moved into the living room, I followed him, and grimaced at the scene. There were spots of blood all over the carpet, it was a mess.

"You guys said you were with the alarm company?" The landlady asked, she was sassy, and not afraid to share her opinion.

"That's right." I murmured at her, my eyes not leaving the blood.

"Well, no offense, but your alarm's about as useful as boobs on a man." She said to me, and I smirked at the comment – I liked this woman, she had an attitude much akin to mine right now.

"Well, that's why we're here." Dean said, walking past us into the room. "To see what went wrong and stop it from happening again."

"Now ma'am, you found the body?" Sam asked her, moving away from the blood.

"Yeah." She confirmed, looking around.

"Right after it happened?" Sam questioned.

"No, a few days later. Meredith's work called – she hadn't shown up. I knocked on the door. That's when I noticed the smell." She answered, grimacing.

"Any windows open? Any sign of a break-in?" Dean asked, pausing to look out the window to the street.

"No. Windows were locked, front door was bolted. Chain was on the door, we had to cut it just to get in." She said, gesturing back toward the door.

"And the alarm was still on?" I chimed in, finally looking up.

"Like I said, bang-up job your company's doing." The landlady said.

"Mhmmm..." Dean said, thinking. "You see any overturned furniture, broken glass, signs of a struggle?" She shook her head negatively.

"Everything was in perfect condition – except Meredith." She said.

"And what condition was Meredith in?" Sam asked, looking up.

"Meredith was all over. In pieces. They guy who killed her must have been some kind of a whackjob. But I tell you, if I didn't know any better, I'd have said a wild animal did it." Dean looked at me at that point, frowning.

"Ma'am, do you mind if we take some time? Give this place a once-over?" Sam asked.

"Oh, well, go right ahead. Knock yourself out." She said, and left us to it.

Dean opened the toolbox he was carrying and removed the EMF meter.

"So, a killer walks in and out of the apartment – no weapons, no prints, nothing." He said, looking around.

"I'm telling you, the minute I found that article, I knew this was our kind of gig." Sam said as the EMF meter started to beep frantically in Dean's hands.

"I think I agree with you." Dean concurred.

"So, you talked to the cops?" I asked the boys, they'd left earlier to pick up the costumes and make some inquiries.

"Uh, yeah." Dean smirked. "I spoke to Amy, a, uh, charming, perky officer of the law." He winked at me and I rolled my eyes.

"What'd you find out?" I asked.

"Well, she's a Sagittarius – perfect for Sammy boy – loves tequila, and oh she's got this little tattoo..."

"Dean!" Sam chided him. Dean stopped reaching behind to his lower back to show where when Sam the tattoo had been and looked over at him.

"What?" He asked.

Sam flicked his eyes at me and I pretended to ignore it, like I'd pretended I was ignoring that whole lot of prattle that had come out of Dean's mouth. It was harmless enough, but the man simply failed to realise, unlike Sam, that he was kind of treading on thin ice at the moment given my mood. Dean just stared at Sam for a moment and then continued with what he'd been saying.

"Yeah. Uh, nothing we don't already know. Except for one thing they're keeping out of the papers." He said.

"What's that?" I asked, scooting around the blood stains to take a closer look, there was something different about them, something not so random.

"Meredith's heart was missing." Dean said, looking at me.

We both looked up at that comment. "Her heart?!" Sam said, stunned.

"Yeah. Her heart." Dean repeated quietly, looking around.

We thought about that for a moment, thinking about what possibly could attack and do this much damage, plus have a fondness for hearts.

"So what do you think did it to her?" Sam asked finally.

"Well, the landlady said it looked like an animal attack. Maybe it was – werewolf?" Dean suggested.

I shook my head, thinking to my star gazing session last night. "Nuh-uh, lunar cycle's not right." He looked at me. "Plus, it if was a creature, surely it would have left some kind of a trace?"

"It's probably a spirit." Sam said.

Dean had moved over next to me and was staring at the blood stains. I looked up at him.

"You seeing that?" I asked, thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me.

He nodded silently.

"See if there's any masking tape around." He said to Sam.

Ten minutes later Dean was tracing a pattern between the blood splatters with masking tape. Sam and I watched as it came together. When he was done, we stood back, looking at it. It was a circle, with two arms circling around to the left.

"You ever see that symbol before?" Sam asked us. Dean shook his head.

"Never." I replied, frowning.

* * *

_**Bar**_

We'd decided to swing by a local bar where Meredith had worked and ask some questions. I had a smashing headache at this point, and downed a couple of ibuprofen along with a shot of tequila, grimacing. Dean frowned at me but didn't say anything. He was chatting up one of the bartenders to get some information, I went and sat at a table, waiting for Sam. I felt like shit and put my head down on the table, closing my eyes for a moment.

"You ok?" Sam's voice came from behind me and he slid on to the stool next to me.

"No." I said, sitting back and stretching my neck, moving my head in large circles. "I have a splitting headache." I grumbled.

"You know you've been out of sorts all day, think it's anything serious?" He asked, puppy dog eyes full of concern. I thought I'd been hiding it fairly well, but I should have known better.

"It's just a headache Sammy, don't worry." I said with a smile I didn't feel. I downed my other shot and stood up, rounding the table to the dart board nearby. If I was in a bar, I might as well practice. I took my place and threw the first couple of darts at the board. _They hit it, at least, _I thought ruefully, but they weren't that good a shot. I tossed the last one without even thinking and stared in shock – perfect bullseye. _Say what?_ I frowned, and shook my head.

I rolled my eyes at this in frustration. I was feeling jittery and worked up, and I didn't know why. I decided maybe another drink would sort that out, so I went up to the bar, leaning in to the bartender Dean was talking to.

"Tequila." I said to her and she turned her brown eyes to look at me with a smile. "Make it two."

"Sure thing." She said with a smile. I turned to stare at Dean, and he stared back at me, an amused look in his eye. She put the drinks down in front of me and I tossed one back with a sigh, placing a twenty dollar bill on the counter.

"Keep the change." I said and sent Dean a little smile before sauntering off to Sam with my other shot. He was flipping through John's journal, looking a bit agitated. I downed my other shot and put my head back on the table. "Gah." I muttered.

Sam looked up as Dean came toward us. "You get anything? Besides her number?" He asked his brother.

"Dude, I'm a professional. I'm offended that you would think that!" Dean said. I could feel them having their usual staring match while my head rested on the table. Dean caved, holding up a napkin with her number on. I raised my eyebrow at him.

"It's for Sam, sheesh." He said, tossing the number at his brother who looked at him incredulously.

"You ok?" Dean asked turning worried eyes to me and resting a hand on the back of my neck, it felt nice and cool against my hot skin.

"Yeah, it's just a headache" I said, looking up, resting my head in my arms. He didn't look convinced.

"Anything else Dean?" Sam asked, waving the number around in the air.

"Huh? No. There's nothing to find out. Meredith worked here, she waited tables, everyone here was her friend. Everybody said she was normal. She didn't do or say anything weird before she died, so..." He shrugged. "What about that symbol, you find anything?" He asked.

"Nope, nothing. It wasn't in Dad's journal or in any of the usual books." Sam answered. "I'll just have to dig a little deeper I guess."

"Well there was a first victim, right?" I asked, sitting up to join in the conversation. "Before Meredith?"

"Right. Yeah." Sam said, pulling out a newspaper clipping. "His name was... Ben Swardstrom." He handed us the clipping. "Last month he was found mutilated in his town house. Same deal – the door was locked, the alarm was on."

"Is there any connection between the two of them?" I asked.

"Not that I can tell – I mean, not yet, at least. Ben was a banker, Meredith was a waitress. They never met, never knew anyone in common – they were practically from different worlds." Sam said.

"So, to recap – the only successful intel we've scored so far is the bartender's phone number." Dean mirked at Sam and I shook my head.

Sam was staring at something across the room, I tried to follow his gaze but nothing was standing out in particular.

"OK. Enough. What's wrong?" Dean asked, taking my face in his hands and looking at me a little more intently, lifting my face up so I was sitting level with him. I didn't get to answer.

Suddenly Sam was walking across the bar, Dean turned to watch him. "What?" Sam kept walking. "Sam?" Dean called out to him. We watched Sam walk up to a pretty little blond sitting with her back to him. He put his hand out and she turned around, seeming to recognise him. There was a smile, and a hug; Dean and I exchanged curious looks, watching with interest.

"Well who the hell is that?" Dean said, looking at me.

"No idea." I replied. "Let's go find out." I smiled.

"Let's." He agreed with a grin.

We walked over and came up behind Sam. The girl was chatting about where she was from, and the odds of them running into each other again. Dean cleared his throat and she ignored him.

"Yeah, I know, I thought I'd never see you again." Sam said, smiling.

"Well, I'm glad you were wrong." She said, and Sam nodded. Dean cleared his throat a little louder again this time. This time she threw him a death stare, _if looks could kill. _"Dude, cover your mouth." She said.

Sam turned. "Yeah, um, I'm sorry, Meg. This is – this is my brother Dean, and this is Beth." Meg looked surprised.

"This is Dean?" She asked. Dean smiled at her.

"So you've heard of me?" He asked cockily, looking at me with a smile. I smirked and leaned in to him, putting my arm around his waist, I was suddenly feeling really unwell. He glanced down at me with a frown, but let it pass, turning eyes back to Meg.

"Oh yeah. I've heard of you. Nice – the way you treat your brother like luggage." I looked up at that. _Say what? _She looked at me with disinterest. Dean was looking confused.

"Sorry?" He asked, inclining his head.

"Why don't you let him do what he wants to do? Stop dragging him all over God's green earth." She accused, fire in her eyes.

"Meg it's all right." Sam said quietly, intervening. Everyone stood silently for a moment, then Dean was shaking his head with a low whistle.

"OK. Awkward. I think we're going to get that drink now, hey Beth?" He said, looking at me. I wasn't feeling so good. The more I stood here the longer I felt like I was going to vomit... all over this sassy little girl's pretty red boots.

I looked up at Dean and pulled him away slightly. "Actually Dean, I think I need to go home..." I said, he looked at me with concern, then I felt my legs buckle underneath me. Dean caught me without effort, holding me in his arms, but he was worried now.

"Beth!" He said, looking me in the eyes. "What's wrong?" He asked, I shook my head. I couldn't focus on anything, everything was blurry.

"I don't feel good Dean... I think I'm gonna be sick!" I said, leaning in to him. Sam had come up to me and was also checking me over.

"We need to get her back to the motel." Sam said and Dean agreed. I felt him lift me in his arms, and buried my head in his shoulder, wrapping my arms around his neck.

"OK, Tinkerbell, one two many tequilas for you I think." He quipped, shrugging to the people who were now turning to look at us. He headed for the door.

I looked over his shoulder, the nausea lessening the further we got to the door, but I still felt dizzy. I watched Meg grab Sam's arm, they had a couple of exchanges, and then she was handing him a piece of paper, no doubt with her number. _Curious._

* * *

**Boarding Room**

We were back at the boarding room we'd rented for the week, I was now tucked up in bed feeling a lot better. Dean fussed over me, which didn't happen very often, and that showed just how worried he was. He brought me a cup of tea with a grimace that showed he didn't like it any better than I did.

"Coffee?" I asked hopefully. He stared at me.

"This is better, I should think." Came the answer. I sighed.

Sam came back into the room and threw John's journal on the bed next to ours. Dean decided to take his worry out on his brother.

"Who the hell was she?" He asked, referring to Meg.

"I don't really know. I only met her once. Meeting up with her again? I don't know, man, it's weird." Sam said, he looked contemplative, like something wasn't sitting right with him.

"And what was she saying? I treat you like luggage? What were you bitching about me to some chick?" Dean asked, angrily.

"Look, I'm sorry, Dean. It was when we had that huge fight in Indiana." Sam said, I leaned back taking a sip of my tea. "But that's not important, just listen..." He was interrupted.

"Well is there are any truth to what she's saying? I mean, am I keeping you against your will Sam?" Dean asked, still focused on the blond's comments.

"What? No, of course not." Sam shook his head and looked at Dean like he was mad. "Now would you listen?" He said.

"What?" Dean grumbled.

"I think there's something strange going on here, Dean." Sam said, looking over at me.

"Yeah, tell me about it. She wasn't even that into me." He looked offended and I chuckled, which got a smile out of him.

"No, man, I mean like our kind of strange. Like, maybe even a lead." Sam said. I frowned.

"What are you talking about Sam?" I asked, sitting forward with my knees up to my chest, arms wrapped around them.

"I met Meg weeks ago, literally on the side of the road. And now, I run into her in some random Chicago bar? I mean, the same bar where a waitress was slaughtered by something supernatural? You don't think that's a little weird?" He asked

"I don't know, random coincidence. It happens." Dean said.

"Yeah it happens, but not to us." Sam said. "Look I could be wrong, I'm just saying there's something about this girl I can't quite put a finger on." Dean smirked at him.

"Well I bet you'd like to. I mean, maybe she's not a suspect, maybe you've got a thing for her, huh?" Dean said. Sam rolled his eyes and laughed at his brother, then looked at me. Sam came and sat down next to me, ignoring his brother.

"How you feeling?" He asked, looking at me worried.

"Better." I said frowning. "I don't know what that was all about. I just felt really light headed all of a sudden."

"Too much tequila!" Dean sung from the bathroom where he was standing at the basin and wetting a wash cloth.

He came back, and in atypical Dean fashion, gently placed it against my forehead, holding it there. I sighed and leaned in to the cool cloth, it felt good.

"You are burning up." Dean said, worried. "Are you sick?"

"I didn't think so, I was fine this morning, other than the headache." I said.

"Well... you guys aren't going anywhere for a bit, so do me a favour and check if there's really a Meg Masters from Andover, Massachusetts." Sam said, standing up. "And see if you can't dig anything up on that symbol on Meredith's floor."

"What are you gonna do?" Dean asked, looking up from where he was kneeling on the floor next to the bed.

"I'm gonna watch Meg." Sam said, pulling on his jacket.

Dean laughed. "Yeah sure."

"I just want to see what's what. Better safe than sorry." Sam said.

"All right, you little pervert." Dean grinned, I chuckled as Sam threw his brother a fed-up look and left the room.

Dean turned to me and regarded me with a serious look."You want to tell me how long this has been going on?" He said, and I grimaced.

"Since we got to town." I confessed. Two days. "I put it down to being tired, we have been running ourselves kind of ragged lately." He nodded. "The dizziness though, that kind of hit me without any notice."

"Well it's not the tequila," He said quietly. "You can toss back three times as much and not bat an eyelid." I nodded silently.

"Right. So... headaches, nausea, dizziness? Same as what happened in New Orleans?" He asked, I looked up with surprise, the look I got was anything but amused.

I reached out a hand and trailed it down his cheek with a smile. "I forget how closely you watch me sometimes." He let out a sigh, and leaned in to brush his lips against mine, they lingered for a while as he leaned his forehead against mine, closing his eyes. I draped my arms over his shoulders and held him there, relishing the contact.

"I was kind of hoping this had passed." He confessed, the worry coming into his eyes now.

"Yeah, me too." I said with a twitch of my lips. "What's going on Dean?"

"I don't know." He said quietly.

He pulled back a little and smiled encouragingly at me. "We'll find out though." Fluffing a pillow he put it behind my head and stood up to go pour me a cup of coffee, bringing it back and putting it in my hands.

"Get some rest, you want the remote? I'm going to jump on the computer and do that homework Sammy wants." He said, looking down at me. I smiled gratefully and took a sip of the coffee... way better than tea. He left me to my thoughts, setting up the computer, but I noticed his gaze wasn't far from me for the next few hours.

* * *

_**Later that evening**_

Dean leaned back in his chair with a sigh, then grabbed his phone. I watched as he waited for, Sam presumably, to answer. I wasn't wrong.

"Let me guess. You're lurking outside that poor girl's apartment, aren't you?" He said with a grin.

There was a pause as Sam answered him. "You've got a funny way of showing your affection." He responded to whatever Sam had said, I chuckled.

"Sorry, man, she checks out. There is a Meg Masters in the Andover phonebook. I even pulled up her high school photo. Now, look, why don't you go knock on her door and, uh, invite her to a poetry reading, or whatever it is you do, huh?" He winked at me as he said that and I shook my head.

There was another exchange and Dean went on to tell him he had discovered something about the symbol. It was Zoroastrian, very old school, almost 4000 years old. The symbol was a sigil for a Daeva, which translated to a demon of darkness.

"Zoroastrian demons, they're savage, animalistic, you know, nasty attitudes – kind of like demonic pit bulls." Dean finished.

Sam said something and Dean looked offended.

"Give me some credit man. You don't have a corner on the paper chasing around here." Pause. "No Beth didn't look it up either!" I laughed at that.

Dean looked defeated at whatever Sam was saying. "All right, I called Dad's friend Caleb, ok?" He confessed.

"Anyway, here's the thing." Dean said. "These Daevas, they have to be summoned, conjured." I sat forward at that comment. This meant someone had to be controlling the thing.

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And from what I gather, it's pretty risky business too. These suckers tend to bite the hand that feeds them. And, uh, the arms and torsos."

There were a few more exchanges between the two and then I took it, from the look on his face, that when Dean got to the part about Sam going and biting Meg, in a friendly way, Sam hung up on him. He looked over at me with a smile.

"Bite her?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

"Well... yeah." He shrugged with a grin. "How you feeling? You up for a little biting?" He said suggestively. That got a laugh out of me.

I swung my legs out of bed and padded barefoot across the floor to wrap my arms around his neck. He reached up in a kind of backwards hug and I nipped at his neck.

"Hmmm... I know what I wouldn't mind sinking my teeth into." I said huskily.

"Oh yeah?" He said, turning to look at me. "What?"

"Deep dish Chicago pizza." I grinned, his face broke into a smile.

"Meat lovers?" He asked, hopeful.

"Is there any other kind of pizza?" I asked, and we both laughed because Sam always ordered something bizarre like chicken and mushroom, or vegetarian. Dean pulled me into his lap with a smile.

"Now I recall why it is I love you." He grinned, then his eyes bled to serious. "You feeling better?"

"Yeah. Almost 100 percent." I said smiling, and I didn't even have to lie, it was very bizarre.

* * *

One and a half pizzas later and Sam still hadn't come home. I was starting to worry a little, Dean reassured me that it probably just meant he had finally gotten up the courage to talk to Meg.

_Eye of the Tiger _started playing on Dean's phone and I groaned. "Dean you ever going to change that ring tone?" I muttered. He looked at me with surprise.

"What? I love this song!" He said, leaning across the bed to answer it.

"Hello." He said. "Uh, yeah, hi Amy." I raised an eyebrow and he shrugged at me. "Yeah, oh really? Can you email them to me? Yeah, that'd be great." Dean went on to give them our email address and went to stand at the computer while they came through. "Yeah, yeah I got them. Thanks a lot, I owe you one." He hung up and looked at me.

"What is it?" I asked, sitting cross legged on the bed.

"The records for Meredith and the other guy... Ben." He said, frowning and flipping through documents on the computer.

He looked up suddenly, and I knew he'd seen something we'd missed. I was already pulling on my boots as he filled me in. We were half way out the door when Sam came barging in.

"Dude, I gotta talk to you!" They both said in unison, and shook their heads. I smirked.

"Jinx." I said, and went to go sit down at the table with a smile.

Minutes later we were all sitting around the table while Sam filled us in on what he'd been up to. He'd followed Meg to an abandoned warehouse, climbed up an elevator shaft, and watched her communicate with someone or something in a mysterious bowl full of blood. I grimaced at the story, sounded like something out of a Grimm fairytale... or sadly, every day life for us.

"So, hot little Meg is summoning the Daeva?" Dean asked.

"Looks like she was using that black altar to control the thing." Sam said, nodding and bit into a piece of pizza. He grimaced at the amount of artery clogging, heart-attack inducing toppings we had on it, but he was hungry so he was eating.

"So, Sammy's got a thing for the bad girl." I grinned at him, Dean laughed. Sam rolled his eyes at me and took another bite of pizza.

"What the deal with the bowl again?" Dean asked.

"She was talking into it," Sam said, taking a gulp of water. "The way witches used to scry into crystal balls or animal entrails. She was communicating with someone."

"With who? The Daeva?" Dean asked.

"No, you said those things were savages. No, this was someone different. Someone who's giving her orders. Someone who's coming to that warehouse." Sam said thinking it over.

Dean was still clicking through files on the laptop. "Holy crap." He muttered.

"What?" Sam asked.

"What I was gonna tell you earlier – I pulled a favour with my friend Amy, over at the police department. The complete records of the two victims. We missed something the first time."

"What?" Sam asked chewing thoughtfully on another piece of pizza.

"The first victim, Ben, he spent his whole life in Chicago, but he wasn't born here." I said, filing Sam in. "He was born in Lawrence, Kansas." Sam looked up at me sharply, swallowing.

"What?" He exclaimed.

Dean was nodding. "Mhmmm. Meredith, the second victim, turns out she was adopted. And guess where she's from."

Sam looked at us both. "Lawrence?"

"Bingo." I said. "Sammy wins a prize." Sam looked shocked.

"Holy crap." Sam said.

"Yeah." Dean agreed, nodding.

"I mean, it is where the demon killed Mom. That's where everything started. So, you think Meg's tied up with the demon?" Sam asked.

"It's a definite possibility," I said, getting up to make us all a coffee.

"But I don't understand. What's the significance of Lawrence? And how do these Daeva things fit in?" Sam said, voicing the questions we all had.

"Beats me. But I say we trash that black altar, grab Meg, and have ourselves a friendly little interrogation." Dean said, grabbing the last piece of pizza and taking a bite.

"No, we can't. We shouldn't tip her off. We've gotta stake out the warehouse. See who, or what is showing up to meet her." Sam said, being a tad more reasonable.

"Well, I'll tell you one thing." I said quietly, turning with the coffees in hand. I looked at the boys, a heavy heart. "I don't think we should be doing this alone."

* * *

Dean was making the call to John while Sam got the weapons from the car.

"We think we've got a serious lead on the thing that killed Mom. So, uh, this warehouse – it's 1435 West Erie. Dad, if you get this, get to Chicago as soon as you can." He said, hanging up.

"Voicemail?" I asked.

Dean sighed. "Yeah."

He looked over at Sam who had just come into the room carrying two bags full of weapons. Sam chuckled and dumped the bags on one of the beds, rotating his shoulder from the strain of having lugged what looked like the entire contents of the Impala up the stairs to our room. "Dude, what'd you get?" Dean asked, starting to go through the bags, pulling out books, amulets, guns.

"I ransacked the trunk. Holy water, every weapon I could think of, exorcism rituals from about a half dozen religions. I'm not sure what we should expect, so I guess we should just expect everything." Sam said realistically.

I picked up my favourite sawed off shotgun and Sam tossed me some ammo, I loaded it and nodded appreciatively at her. The boys followed suit. Pretty soon we were just all business, sitting around the bed, getting the guns loaded, the supplies double checked.

Dean broke the silence first. "Big night." He said, looking at me, then Sam.

"Yeah. You nervous?" Sam asked.

"No. Why are you?" Dean said, looking up at his brother.

"No. No way." Sam answered, shaking his head. I knew they were lying. They had to be nervous, I was sick to my stomach thinking about it.

"God, could you imagine if we actually found that damn thing? The demon?" Sam asked, looking excited as he loaded up a handgun.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves Sammy." I cautioned.

"I know. I'm just saying, what if we did? What if this whole thing was over tonight? Man, I'd sleep for a month. Go back to school – be a person again." Sam looked all dreamy-eyed. Dean and I stared at him.

"You want to go back to school?" Dean asked finally.

"Yeah, once we're done hunting the thing." Sam said.

"Huh." Dean said, going back to checking the gun in his hands.

"Why? Is there something wrong with that?" Sam asked, looking uncertain.

"No, no. It's uh, great. Good for you." Dean said, nodding at him, he might have paid the lip service, but Dean was far from being happy about Sam's declaration, the set of his shoulders said it all.

"I mean, what are you guys going to do once it's all over?" Sam said, turning to look at us.

I glanced at Dean, we had never really talked about this, never even saw it as a possibility. We'd been at this for so long, it hardly seemed plausible.

"It's never going to be over. There's going to be others. There's always going to be something to hunt." Dean said quietly, attaching a sheath to his arm where he would put a silver knife.

"But, don't you guys want a real life for yourselves? I mean, you could stop running, stop fighting. You could settle down and … I don't know, have a family!" Sam said looking at us, Dean got up and walked over to the dresser, leaning against it, silent.

"Yeah, I don't know if a family is really in the cards for us Sammy..." I said quietly. I couldn't bring myself to look at Dean, I didn't know if I wanted to see what was there. We'd been living this life for so long, it was hard to think about doing anything else. Sam was different, he'd always had his heart set on something more. Dean and I had issues, let's face it. I wasn't sure either of us would know what to do with a normal life even if we had it. Sam just stared at the both of us shaking his head.

"You guys are messed up." He muttered. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Dude, you want to become a _lawyer." _I quipped back, which earned me a bit of a smile from him. Sam knelt in front of me, looking for something, I blinked and tried to look away.

"Come on Beth, you can't tell me that this is all there is for you. You had dreams once." He said gently.

"Once, maybe. Not since my dad died Sam – I'm not sure it'll ever be over for me." There was that unspoken thing. The demon who had killed my father was still out there, sort of, in Hell most likely, but it wasn't dead – and that was a little bit unsettling to me.

"Yeah, look, it would be nice if you didn't leave the second this thing's over, Sam." Dean said, turning around. His face was awash with conflicting emotions. He looked at me a little sadly and I returned the look.

"Huh? What is your problem Dean?" Sam asked, standing up to face his brother.

"Why do you think we drag you along everywhere? Huh? I mean, why do you think we got you from Stanford in the first place?" Dean shrugged, looking vulnerable and open.

"Because Dad was in trouble, Beth was sick... because you wanted to find the thing that killed Mom." Sam answered, looking at him.

"Yes, that, but it's more than that man." Dean fell silent for a moment, looking away, and I got up and walked over to him, putting my arm around him and resting my chin on his shoulder. He threw me a little smile and leaned into the embrace with a sigh.

"It's more than that Sam. You, me, Beth and Dad – I mean, I want us to be together again. I want us to be a family again." Dean said, looking at Sam.

"Dean," Sam said softly, the puppy dog eyes in full effect. "We _are _a family. I'd do anything for you guys. But things will never be the way they were before." He finished, looking forlorn.

"Could be." Dean said, a little sadly, I squeezed his shoulder a little. Sam nodded, considering, and then took a breath.

"I don't want them to be. I'm not going to live this life forever. Dean, when this is all over, you're going to have to let me go my own way." Sam said. Dean looked up at him, and they stared at each other for a long moment, and then Dean pulled away and walked outside.

"Jesus Beth, what the hell?" Sam asked, pacing the room. I sighed and patted him on the back.

"It's ok Sam, I'll talk to him. This hasn't been easy on him you know, with Dad being gone... Dean has never really handled change that well."

"We face change every day." Sam said.

"No, we face uncertainty, that's a different thing. Change... well there's always been some kind of consistency in Dean's life. You and Dad, and then me. He never really got over you leaving for college." I said, looking at him sadly.

Sam blew out a breath and nodded. "But I can't live this life forever Beth." I nodded and patted him on the arm.

"I know. I wouldn't expect you to." I smiled at him and reached up to muss up his hair like I used to when he was a kid.

"What about you?" He asked.

"That's easy." I said. "I go where he goes, and we'll figure it out together." I smiled. Sam shook his head.

"You're both nuts." He muttered and walked off to the bathroom.

I waited a moment and then grabbed my jacket, shrugging in to it before going in search of Dean. He was sitting on the back of the Impala, lying back against the window, staring at the stars. When he heard me, he sat up and looked my way. I was reminded of a similar night, many moons ago when it had been his father sitting there.

He didn't move, just sat there while I came around to see where his head was at.

"Hey." I said quietly, running my hands along his thighs as I stood in front of him, looking up into those hazel eyes.

"Hey." He said back, a half-smile offered as a welcome.

"You ok?" I asked, sliding my hands under his jacket and up his back as I pulled him forward for a hug. He wrapped his arms around me and leaned his chin on the top of my head.

"Yeah. What about you?" He asked, lifting my jaw up and pulling back so he could look me in the eyes.

"I feel fine, no dizziness, no nausea, no headache." I reported back with a smile.

"That's not what I meant." He said, frowning.

I gave him a half-smile. "I know."

"Do you want something more Beth? Something more than this life, like Sam?" He asked quietly, he sounded so fragile, like something might break in him at any moment. I took a deep breath.

"I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about it." I said, looking at him. "You can't tell me you haven't." He shook his head, he had.

"But kids? The big house, white picket fence?" I said, shrugging. "That worked out just so well for our parents didn't it?" I said, cringing.

He nodded and pulled me in tight. "I'm scared every day Beth. Every damn day." Dean said quietly into my hair. I frowned, this really wasn't like him, I waited, I didn't know what to say.

"I don't worry about me, but I'm scared every day we go out there for you, and you're more than capable of looking after yourself. Even if I thought I could convince you to go live a normal, _safe _life without me, I don't want you to. You're the only thing that's good in my life. So I keep you with me, where I can keep you safe." This was probably the longest confession I'd ever gotten out of him.

I pulled back and looked into his eyes, worried.

"I don't want to do this without you Beth. I don't want to do anything without you. Maybe Sammy is right. If you want a normal life, really, and want out – I'll come with you. We'll figure it out." He said, the emotion in his eyes was raw, hurting, like he was trying to set free something he didn't want to let go.

I smiled and pulled his face down to kiss him softly on the lips, gentle at first and then a little more urgently, pulling him in to me, running my tongue along his upper lip, and in to meet his. It was a kiss born of the need to feel each other and exchange that love, I moaned softly and held his face in my hands while his hands slid into my hair, massaging my scalp.

When we pulled away, we were both a little breathless, and smiling. "I don't care what we do Dean, so long as I'm with you." I promised. He smiled and traced a finger along my jaw, nodding. It was enough. It was enough for now. Just to have that promise, to have had the conversation, and we could make of it what we would, in the days, weeks or months to come.

The door to the boarding house stairwell opened up, light spilling out, and Sam stood looking down at us. He was silhouetted against the light behind him, and he carried the weapons bags in both hands. He looked like a man on a mission. "You guys ready to kill some demons?" He asked, we chuckled and nodded, time to get on with the job.

* * *

**Warehouse**

We climbed up the elevator shaft, how no one heard us coming was beyond me, but we were pretty quiet, given the amount of climbing involved.

Meg was standing at the altar, speaking in an ancient language I didn't recognise. As soon as I saw her I started to feel that sick feeling come back into my stomach. I forced it down, now was not the time to get a flashback to New Orleans. I breathed slowly and deliberately through my nose, pushing the nausea back. There was a gap between the gate and the wall, big enough for us to get through.

Sam went first, inching up into the room, I handed him a gun and he stood to point it at Meg's back. Dean nodded for me to follow, I pulled myself up easily to a crouch beside Sam, Dean was close behind. We crept back into the room and away from Meg who was still chanting as she stood in front of the black altar. We hid behind some crates, waiting. Dean handed me the shotgun, and I nodded, pointing at her back.

"Guys." Meg said suddenly. "Hiding's a little bit childish, don't you think?" Dean looked at us both and I blinked.

"Well, that didn't work out like I planned." Dean whispered, frowning. Meg turned to face us.

"Why don't you come out?" She asked. We all stood, hiding was kind of pointless at this stage. She looked at Sam, who was pointing his gun at her.

"Sam, I have to say, this puts a real crimp in our relationship." She said.

"Yeah, tell me about it." Sam muttered.

"So, where's your little Daeva friend?" Dean asked, looking around.

"Around. You know, that shotgun's not gonna do much good." She smiled with a cold hard look at us. There was an emptiness there, a chill beyond words.

"Oh, don't worry sweetheart. The shotgun's not for the demon." Dean said with a smirk.

"So, who is it Meg? Who's coming? Who are you waiting for?" Sam asked.

"You." Meg said, looking straight at him with a smile.

I felt my legs start to waver, the nausea filling me again, and I fought to stand against it. It was like a tug inside of me. It was pulling toward Meg, but also toward a shadow on the wall.

"What's the matter Beth? Cat got your tongue?" Meg asked, looking at me, head inclined. "You know, you're very interesting."

"Shut up." I said, blinking against the growing dizziness. I could feel something growing, I didn't know how to explain it. I looked around in a panic, Dean frowned at me.

"Beth?" He asked, uncertain. Meg laughed.

"You can feel it can't you?" She said, looking at me with interest now. "How very interesting."

"Guys, we have to get out of here." I said, backing away. They looked at me in surprise and then everything moved so quickly. A shadow appeared on the wall, I felt it move at us but we couldn't see it. Sam was knocked to the ground, Dean was thrown clear across the room into the crates we'd just been hiding behind. I felt myself fall to the ground, hit from the side. Sam yelled out as the Daeva attacked him, and then everything went black. We'd been ambushed.

I came to tied to a post. I took a moment to lament that this seemed to be a recurring theme with us lately before I saw that Dean and Sam were also tied to posts nearby. Sam had a nasty looking gash across his face, I flinched when I saw it. Dean also had blood down the side of his face from a cut under his eye. I didn't want to think about what I looked like.

"Hey, Sam? Don't take this the wrong way, but your girlfriend... is a _bitch!" _Dean said, spitting out the last word.

Sam was looking at Meg, his eyes narrow. "This whole thing was a trap. Running into you at the bar, following you here, hearing what you had to say. It was all a set-up wasn't it?"

Meg laughed, she seemed delighted we were starting to figure it out.

"And the victims being from Lawrence?" I asked, looking at her.

"It doesn't mean anything. It was just to draw you in, that's all." She informed us.

"You killed those two people for nothing." Sam looked angry.

"Baby, I've killed a lot more for a lot less." Meg said looking dangerous.

"You trapped us. Good for you. It's Miller time." Dean said with a smile. "But why don't you kill us already? Get it over with."

"Not very quick on the uptake are we?" She said, leaning in to Dean. "This trap isn't for you." She said a looking at him with a raised eyebrow. I'm sure my face had gone pale at that statement.

"Dad... it's a trap for Dad." I whispered, looking over at Dean. He looked at Meg, a cocky look on his face.

"Oh sweetheart – you're dumber than you look. 'Cause even if Dad was in town, which he is not, he wouldn't walk into something like this. He's too good." Dean said, sure of himself.

Meg looked confident, sitting on a crate, leg crossed comfortably over the other one, arms draped across her lap. "He is pretty good. I'll give you that." She said, standing to walk over to Dean, she kicked his legs shut, and crouched over him, closing the distance between them to mere feet. "But you see, he has one weakness." She said, smiling and playing with the lapel of Dean's denim jacket.

"What's that?" Dean asked, looking at her.

"You." She stated. "He lets his guard down around his kids, lets his emotions cloud his judgement." She looked at Dean, holding his gaze. "I happen to know he _is _in town. And he'll come and try to save you. And then the Daevas will kill everybody – nice and slow and messy." She looked over at Sam and I as she said the last part.

"Well I got news for ya. It's gonna take a lot more than some... shadow to kill him." Dean said, obstinate to the end.

Meg stood up with a smile, shaking her head. She walked over to stand above me, looking at me with interest.

"Tell them Beth." I looked at her confused. She crouched down and placed her hand against my stomach, pressing hard, I groaned at the pain that shot through me. "You can feel them." She said, head inclined to the side. "Why don't you tell them how many are in here?" I stared at her, and felt my stomach sink. She was right, I could feel it now, like I was being pulled from all directions.

"That's because you had a demon inside of you, you know." She told me, and I closed my eyes. "Ruddhem..." She looked me right in the eyes. "Nasty bitch she is too. She sure didn't like your daddy." I swallowed hard and focused on the feeling in my stomach. It was how I might imagine it felt to be drawn and quartered, a piece of me being pulled toward every demon in the room, and there were many of them. Dean was staring at me, frustration in his eyes.

"The Daevas are here, in the room," Meg informed the boys, looking at me. "They're invisible. Their shadows are the only part you can see." She said with a smirk.

"Why you doin' this Meg? What kind of deal you got worked out here, huh? And with who?" Sam asked, struggling against his ropes.

"I'm doing this for the same reasons you to what you do – loyalty. Love. Like the love you had for Mommy – and Jess." Meg replied, stalking over to him.

"Go to Hell." Sam muttered.

"Baby, I'm already there." She simpered, moving into a prowling crawl as she moved over to Sam. "Come on Sam, there's no need to be nasty." She slid along his body, her breath along his jaw, coming up to his mouth. "I think we both know, how you really feel about me." She leaned in to whisper in his ear. She sat in his lap, Sam was staring at her in disgust. "You know, I saw you watching me – changing in my apartment. Turned you on, didn't it?"

"Get a room you two." Dean muttered.

Meg continued to whisper in Sam's ear. "I didn't mind. I liked that you were watching me. Come on, Sammy. You and I can still have a little dirty fun." She started kissing his neck.

Sam laughed. "You want to have fun? Go ahead then, I'm a little tied up right now." Meg smiled and continued to kiss him.

I looked across at Dean, he was working at his ropes, I saw the glint of his knife which he'd had in a sheath beneath his sleeve. Meg must have missed it. The knife scraped against the post, Meg heard it, and she stood up with a curious look at Dean. She walked behind Dean's post, and spotted the knife. Taking it from him she tossed it across the room into a corner, and returned to look at Dean who chuckled guiltily, looking a little uncomfortable.

Sliding back to Sam, Meg smiled. "Now, were you just trying to distract me while your brother cuts free?" She said.

"No. No. That's because I have a knife of my own." He said, hands freed from behind him, Sam head butted Meg and she fell to the ground with a cry. Sam groaned in pain, and struggled to his feet.

"Sam! Get the altar!" Dean instructed him. Sam walked over to the altar and knocked it to the floor, the candles, goblet, and other items flying to the floor. I felt them before I saw their shadows, the Daevas attacking at Meg, now freed from her control. In the light of the window we saw their shadows clawing at her, we saw her skin being ripped. One of the demons dragged her across the floor and threw her through the large arched window, she fell several floors to the street below.

Sam cut us both free.

"Are they gone?" Dean asked, looking around. I nodded.

"Yeah, they're gone." I was suddenly feeling nausea free, the demons were gone. Dean grabbed me, supporting me to walk, as we all limped over to the window to survey the damage. Below us we could see Meg's broken body on the ground. I had a moment to feel sorry for the girl, what had gone wrong in her life that she'd found herself here, summoning demons of all things? I shuddered.

Dean looked at me, feeling the tremor in my body. "Hey, hey, you ok?" He asked, turning to me. I leaned in to him and took a deep breath, nodding.

"Yeah." I murmured and he put an arm around me.

"So I guess the Daevas didn't like being bossed around." Sam commented, still looking at Meg's body below.

"Yeah, I guess not." Dean said, starting to turn me away from the window. "Hey Sam?" He said with a grin.

"Hm?" Sam asked, looking up.

"Next time you want to get laid, find a girl that's not so buckets-o'-crazy, huh?" Dean tossed his brother a smile and started to lead me back toward the stairs. Sam shook his head and followed.

* * *

**Boarding Room**

Sam was carting a bag full of weapons up the stairs to our room.

"Why didn't you just leave that stuff in the car?" Dean asked, shaking his head.

"I said it before, and I'll say it again – better safe than sorry." Sam said, looking around. I grimaced as I got a better look at the claw mark across his cheek.

"We gotta get that looked at Sam." I said reaching out to tentatively touch it, Sam flinched at my touch and nodded.

Dean unlocked the door to the room and entered, Sam and I followed. Dean saw him first, just an outline of a man by the window, and called out to him, alert.

"Hey!" Dean shouted, causing the figure to turn. I flipped the switch to the room, flooding the room with light, and couldn't believe my eyes.

"Dad?" Dean asked, stepping forward, I looked at John in surprise. He didn't look any different to when I'd seen him in Lawrence, still sporting the beard.

"Hey kids." John said, smiling at us. Dean stumbled forward as if on auto-pilot, not believing his father was standing right in front of him. John walked up to him and grabbed him tight in a hug, tears in his eyes. They held each other for a few minutes, I smiled at Sam who was still looking a little shocked.

John looked at me with a smile, and then over at Sam as he released Dean from his hold. Sam had walked over to stand next to Dean, John now facing them both. "Hi Sam." He said.

"Hey Dad." Sam said softly, dropping the bag of weapons at his feet, but not moving to hug John. John turned around to glance at me, standing by the door still.

"Get over here Bethie." He said with a smile and I crossed the room for my hug. He held me tight and kissed the top of my head before resting his arm around my shoulders and turning to the boys.

"Dad it was a trap." Dean said, looking apologetically at John. "I didn't know, I'm sorry." He looked defeated, like he had failed his father again. I frowned, I hated to see him like that.

"It's all right. I thought it might've been." John said gently.

"Were you there?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Yeah, I got there just in time to see the girl take the swan dive. She was the bad guy, right?" He asked with a smile.

"Yes, sir." Both Dean and Sam said in unison.

"Good." John said, still smiling, he was proud of his kids, a smile was about as good as it got for the boys though. "Well, it doesn't surprise me. It's tried to stop me before."

"The demon has?" Sam asked, looking pointedly at his father.

John nodded. "It knows I'm close. It knows I'm going to kill it. Not just exorcise it or send it back to Hell – actually kill it." I turned to gaze at John when he said that. Dean looked surprised.

"How?" He asked. John just smiled in that cryptic way that infuriated us all the time.

"I'm working on that." He answered.

"Let us come with you." Sam said. "We can help." Dean threw Sam a warning look, but the younger man ignored it.

"No, Sam. Not yet. Just try to understand. This demon is a scary son of a bitch. I don't want you caught in the crossfire. I don't want you hurt." John said, looking down at me as he said the last part.

"Dad, you don't have to worry about us." Sam said.

"Of course I do," He glanced at all three of us in turn. "I'm your father." He said, voice breaking a little. There was a moment of quiet as we all thought about that, John let go of me and stepped toward Sam just slightly, I moved around to Dean, putting my arm around his waist.

"Listen, Sammy, last time we were together, we had one hell of a fight." John said.

Sam sniffed, blinking back tears. "Yes, sir." John paused, just looking at Sam for a handful of moments.

"It's good to see you again. It's been a long time." He said finally, with a smile.

"Too long." Sam said, and the two men embraced, tears in both their eyes.

I felt it before I saw the shadow. The Daeva. Like a sickening hook into me, pulling at my stomach. It caused me to double over, and I screamed.

"Nooo!" Dean was hovering over me, looking around frantically, and then John was tossed across the room into the kitchen cabinets. I collapsed to the floor in agony, grabbing at my stomach. Sam fell back as the Daeva swung at him, connecting with his jaw.

Dean yelled and was also flung across the room. I screamed as I felt the burning cut of a claw rake across my shoulder blade and fell to the ground, crawling to get away.

I looked up to see John pinned to the cabinets, screaming in pain as a gash opened up across his shoulder and down one of his legs. Dean was being rolled across the floor as he was clawed at by another Daeva. Sam dove for the weapons bag and fumbled in it.

"Shut your eyes!" He yelled. "These things are shadow demons, so let's light 'em up!" He pulled a flare out of the bag and lit it. The room was filled with a piercing white light and smoke. The shadow demons were gone, suddenly no where to be seen. I felt them go, they just vanished, so did the pain and nausea.

Sam grabbed me by the waist, hauling me to my feet and pushing me toward the door. We were all coughing from the smoke, it was too bright to open my eyes. "Dean?" I called out, he responded a few yards from me.

"Go Beth, get out!" I obeyed and felt my way toward the exit, Sam was holding on to my jacket, with one hand, weapons bag in the other.

"Dad!" I heard Dean yell, and John responded. I knew Dean would get him out, we just had to find the doorway. John and Dean met us at the door, coming from the other direction and we all piled through, coughing and spluttering from the smoke.

We made it down to the Impala, parked in the alley behind the building. Sam put the bag in the back seat of the car. I grimaced, Dean was now sporting a claw mark across his face. I felt my own shoulder where I'd been hit by one of the claws and saw the blood pooling in my jacket sleeve.

"All right, come on. We don't have much time." Sam said, looking furiously about at us. "As soon as the flare's out, they'll be back." He said.

"Wait, wait. Wait!" Dean said, looking at us all. "Sam, wait." He whispered. Dean looked from Sam to John, and then said what none of us expected. "Dad, you can't come with us."

"What? What are you talking about Dean?" I asked, looking between them all.

"You kids, you're beat to hell." John said, shaking his head.

"We'll be all right." Dean said.

"Dean, we should stick together. We'll go after those demons..." Sam was interrupted.

"Sam! Listen to me!" Dean yelled. "We almost got Dad killed in there. Don't you understand? They're not gonna stop, they're gonna try again. They're gonna use us to get to him." I stared, tears welling in my eyes, but I knew in my heart he was right.

"Meg was right." I said tearfully. "Dad's vulnerable when he's with us. He's... he's stronger without us around." Sam shook his head at us.

"Dad, no." Sam reached out to put his hand on John's shoulder. Dean had slid his arm around me protectively and I leaned in to him, feeling weak and sad.

"After everything, after all the time we spent looking for you – please. I gotta be a part of this fight." Sam said, fighting back tears.

"Sammy, this fight is just starting." John said. "And we are all gonna have a part to play. For now, you've got to trust me son. Okay? You've got to let me go." We stood there, unmoving, for what seemed an eternity.

Then Sam patted John's shoulder once, letting him go. John looked at me, reaching forward and kissing me on the forehead. He exchanged a look with Dean, Dean's arm tightened around me as he fought back whatever he was feeling. Then he was gone, walking to his truck. He looked back at us one more time and smiled.

"Be careful, kids." He said, climbing into his truck and driving away.

"Come on." Dean said, steering me to the car. I climbed in the backseat and started rummaging for another flare... just in case. The boys got in the front, and stared at John's tail lights disappearing in the distance. They looked at each other, and then without a word, Dean started the car, backing out of the alley and taking off down the road as we fled the demons.

* * *

**Prologue – A few days later**

I don't know how many times I'd listened to the voice message on my phone, a dozen times at least. There was never any change to it, but still I listened, trying to glean something more out of it.

"_Beth. I know you have questions. About the demons. Dean has told me about your … abilities. All I know is that it's related to you having been possessed. A friend of mine told me it happens sometimes. You'll feel them Beth, you'll know when they're around. Learn from this. Learn to control it. Learn to use it. Remember your faith, this will guide you, it will protect you. I'll be with you again soon."_

I sighed and flipped the phone shut. He didn't tell me anything else, but John had told me enough. I stood hesitating before the steps to St. Anthony's Church. Patron saint of lost things. I could use a little finding right now.

Dean came up to face me, his face was still raw and sore looking from the claw mark. I grimaced and touched it gingerly. He smiled and the look in his eyes showed he was ok. He pulled out the leather strapping which held his pendant, and unclipped the pentacle amulet which he'd had since we were in Michigan. Taking my rosary, he clipped it back on, and smiled.

I flexed my shoulder, where the Daeva had clawed me, I'd been lucky, the leather jacket had protected me a bit from it, I'd gotten away with minor scrapes.

"Get in there." He said, kissing my cheek. "I'll be right out here if you need me." I nodded, I wouldn't need him, this was sacred ground and I felt safe. But it was nice to know he was nearby.

I was half way up the steps when I heard him again.

"Hey Beth?" I turned, questioning him with my eyes.

"How about you pray for that normal life for us, hmm?" He asked with a smile.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

* * *

_Song for the chapter is: "What Lies Beneath" by Breaking Benjamin. These guys are awesome!_

* * *

_I made an addition/edit to the end of the last chapter too – I woke up and realised I ended it at a bit of an anti-climax, and should at least showcase some of Beth's fighting skills – plus, the timeline fitted better, Sam would have been still fighting by the time they got out of the house. Beth might suck at darts right now, but in the heat of the moment, she sure can throw a hammer! Go adrenaline! ;)_

* * *

_I kind of feel like there wasn't a lot of substance to this episode – it's a filler to get us on the road to the endgame... but it did give us a chance to get a few heart to hearts in, and see a bit of what lies beneath._

* * *

_Hello to my new followers – great to have you here! Would love if you drop me a line and let me know what you like about the story so far :D_

_Thanks for all the reviews from yesterday – big smiles here! I'm so glad you're enjoying the story :D Next up, probably a flash back to pre-relationship Dean and Beth, there will be prank wars involved, and a love interest for Beth! Jealous Dean is mandatory of course :D_

* * *

_Question time: Is it Dean or Beth that John sells his soul for?_

_I'm debating. Which perspective would you like to see it from? We can do Reaper watch from Beth's perspective, or grieving Beth who learns what John does to get Dean back. Either sounds fun to write... I'm tottering either way right now, or maybe another option altogether!_


	16. Hell House

_At the same time, I wanna hug you__  
__I wanna wrap my hands around your neck__  
__You're an asshole but I love you__  
__And you make me so mad I ask myself__  
__Why I'm still here, or where could I go__  
__You're the only love I've ever known__  
__But I hate you, I really hate you,__  
__So much, I think it must be  
__True love, true love__  
__It must be true love__  
__Nothing else can break my heart like__  
__True love, true love,__  
__It must be true love__  
__No one else can break my heart like you_

* * *

**HELL HOUSE**

* * *

**East Texas  
****_Almost 4 years ago_**

_He was kissing me, slowly, deliberately, and it took my breath away, I groaned opened my eyes only to see those piercing hazel eyes staring back at me. _

I startled awake to the sounds of Dean singing and something stuck in my mouth. With a jerk I sat up, waving my arms around and spitting out the plastic spoon that had been resting in my mouth. There was the clicking sound of a phone taking a photo and I glared over at Dean to see him taking his 'after' shot, my reaction to his latest bullshit prank. I wiped my mouth with my arm and glared at him. He was still belting out the tunes to _Fire of Unknown Origins _by Blue Oyster Cult.

"Fire... of unknown origins... took my baby away!" He looked over at me singing and I shook my head, tossing the spoon on the seat next to us. Dean beat on the steering wheel impersonating a drum solo, smiling away.

"Ha ha. Very funny Dean." I said with a snort, turning down the music and sinking down in my seat, crossing my arms across my chest.

Dean chuckled to himself. "Sorry, not a lot of scenery here in East Texas, kinda gotta make your own."

I rolled my eyes. "We're not kids any more Dean. Let's not start that crap up again." I said, looking over at him.

"Start what up?" He asked innocently, turning those hazel eyes to look at me, they lingered a little while on my face before returning to the road.

"That prank stuff. It's stupid." I said, looking out the window.

"And it always escalates..." Sam said from the back seat where he was sitting with the laptop on his knees, tapping away at the keyboard.

"What's the matter Sammy, scared you're going to get a little Nair in your shampoo again huh?" Dean asked with a grin, smiling over at me. I shook my head letting him see that I was not impressed.

"All right, just remember though, you started it." I said turning serious eyes to him. He stared at me until I started to feel a little uncomfortable, I rolled my eyes at him again and looked away first with a frown.

"Bring it on sugarpie." He grinned.

Dean glanced in the rear-view mirror at Sam who was watching us both banter. He sighed and looked down at the computer.

"You got something to say, baldy?" Dean quipped, and Sam ignored his question.

"What were you dreaming about anyway?" Dean asked, looking over at me with an amused expression. I looked at him, same green eyes as the dream. I sighed and looked out the window, not answering.

"'Cause I could have sworn I heard a few moans coming out of you, you know." Dean pushed with that same infuriating smile.

I stared at him, leaning over to look at him with a raised eyebrow. He glanced at me a little uncomfortable under the attention I was giving him, and how close I was now sitting, my chest pretty much right up to his arm.

"What's the matter Dean? Worried there's a girl out there somewhere in the world whose world doesn't revolve around you? Maybe I was dreaming about Johnny Depp, and that super sexy smile of his." I said, teasing, goading him.

"Oh yeah?" He asked, grinning at me. He leaned in to my ear and whispered quietly so Sam wouldn't hear. "Is that why I heard my name?"

I'm sure my eyes widened in horror at that point, but he couldn't see, his lips still near my hairline. I turned, deliberately, brushing my lips just barely across his cheek to look at him.

"Maybe I'm just really into MacGuyver." I said softly into his ear, referring to Richard Dean Anderson. I raised my eyebrow and leaned back in my seat, Dean threw me a frustrated look, turning back to the road. Sam cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Where are we anyway?" Sam asked, looking out the window.

"A few hours outside of Richardson." I answered, glancing at the map in my lap. We'd decided to move towns, it'd been a week since John had gone off on his own, and we were bored.

"What are we going here for again?" Dean asked, looking at Sam in the mirror. He was all business again, whatever tension had been between us fading as he forced it under a mask. I sighed.

Sam blew out a breath and started to read from the screen in front of him.

"All right, about a month or two ago this group of kids goes poking around in this local haunted house."

"Haunted by what?" I asked, looking back, leaning my arm on the seat behind me.

"Apparently, a misogynistic spirit." Sam answered.

"Big word there Sammy, you learn that in your women's right class?" Dean quipped with a cocky look. Sam stared at the back of his brother's head, debating whether or not to take the bait. He ignored it.

"Legend goes, it takes girls and strings them up in the rafters." He replied. "Anyway this group of kids see this dead girl hanging in the cellar."

"Anybody ID the corpse?" Dean asked.

"Well, that's the thing. By the time the cops got there the body was gone. So cops are saying the kids were just yanking their chains." Sam answered.

"Maybe the cops are right?" I suggested, glancing over at Dean, who was concentrating on the road again.

"Maybe, but I read a couple of the kids first hand accounts. They seemed pretty sincere." Sam answered.

Dean looked up at that. "Where did you read these accounts?"

Sam looked a little embarrassed, glancing first at me then the website. "Uh... a local, paranormal website..."

"And what's it called?" Dean asked sceptically.

"Hell Hounds .com " Sam answered with cringe.

"Let me guess, streaming live out of Mom's basement." Dean said with a chuckle.

Sam grinned at that comment. "Yeah, probably."

"Yeah. Most of those websites wouldn't know a ghost if it bit 'em in the persqueeter." Dean said with a snicker.

"Look Dean. We let Dad take off on this job without us, which was a mistake, by the way." I said and he looked over at me. "We're going to be having downtime for weeks. Dad didn't say anything about us not looking into a job if it came up."

Dean frowned and looked at me. "Yeah, but he didn't say we could go off hunting on our own either." He said.

I sighed. "We're not babies Dean." I turned to look at him, arms crossed against my chest again, he glanced down to where I was showing ample cleavage from the angle of my arms. He swallowed and looked away again.

"That much is pretty clear." He said, glancing back at me. I dropped my arms, a little taken aback by the comment, and nearly lost my train of thought.

"I'm sick of being wrapped in cotton wool." I said finally.

"Dad doesn't wrap us in cotton wool." Dean said.

"Not you maybe. He does us." I said, sighing.

Dean said nothing. He knew I was right.

"Come on Dean, it's a little haunting, it's not going to kill us." I said. "John has let us take on hunts by ourselves before." Dean nodded.

"Yeah, but he was always around to back us up." Dean pointed out.

"You know I'm as good as you..." I trailed off as he gave me an amused look. "OK, maybe not quite as good, but I have skills! I'm sick of being left behind because I'm a girl." I finished, slumping down in my seat again and looking out the window.

"The three of us can handle something like this. We don't need John to back us up." I said angrily.

Dean sighed and was silent for a little while. I glanced over at him a few times, he was staring straight ahead at the road. Finally he let out a long sigh.

"All right. So where do we find these kids?" He asked, rolling his eyes.

"Really?!" I asked, excited. He shook his head at me, letting me know he thought this was a bad idea.

"But if Dad asks, this was _all your idea." _Dean said. He said it but we all knew that didn't matter, John would kick his ass either way for letting us talk him into doing this if anything went wrong. Chances are he'd do it even if everything went right.

I flashed Dean a smile and leaned over to give him a quick hug and kiss. "Oooh thank you!" I said, which earned me another chuckle and grin.

"So where to Sam?" Dean asked, looking back in the mirror again.

"Same place you always find kids in a town like this." Came the answer.

* * *

**Rodeo Drive Fast Food Outlet**

We had interviewed the three kids that had been in the haunted house, getting their side of the story. They'd been quick to fill us in. Sam had taken the guy outside, I talked to the girl, and Dean questioned the guy inside.

"I think it was blood. Whatever... I had my eyes closed the whole time. But that poor girl with the red hair, just hanging there... she was real!" The girl said to me.

Dean frowned at me. "She had black hair." He said, and I shook my head.

"Girl said it was red." I said sucking on my milkshake. He swallowed and looked over at Sam who shrugged.

"Guy said she had blonde hair." Sam said, frowning.

"OK so they all saw a different girl..." Dean said, thinking. He looked down at his burger and took a bite.

"How'd they find this place anyway?" I asked. Dean and Sam looked at each other.

"That they could agree on. A guy named Craig." Sam answered.

* * *

**Music Shop**

Craig worked in the music shop in town. We entered and took a look around. Dean and I went to the counter, Sam decided to check out some music, saying we could use an update to the music collection – he was over all Dean's _Metallica _and _Boston_.

The guy looked up at Dean and I, coming alert when we approached. "Hello. Can I help you with anything?" He asked.

"Yeah, are you Craig Thurston?" I asked.

"I am." Craig said with a nod.

"Well, we're reporters with the _Dallas Morning News. _I'm Dean, this is Beth." Dean said, spinning our story.

"No way! Well I'm a writer too. I write for my school's lit magazine." Craig answered.

"Yeah? Well good for you Morrisey." Dean quipped, the guy just looked at him.

"Umm. We're doing an article on local hauntings and rumour has it you might know of one." I said, leaning on the counter, Craig glanced down at me, swallowing.

"You mean the Hell House?" Craig asked.

"That's the one." Dean said.

"I didn't think there was anything to the story." He said.

"Why don't you tell us the story?" I said.

"Well, supposedly back in the '30s this farmer, Mordechai Murdoch, used to live in this house with his six daughters. It was during the depression, his crops were failing, he didn't have enough money to feed his own children. So I guess that's when he went off the deep end."

"How?" I asked.

"Well, he figured it was best if his girls died quick, rather than starve to death. So he attacked them. They screamed, begged for him to stop but he just strung 'em up, one after the other. And when he was all finished he just turned around and hung himself. Now they say that his spirit is trapped in the house forever, stringing up any other girl that goes inside." Craig said, looking between the two of us.

"Where'd you hear all this?" Dean asked.

"My cousin Dana told me. I don't know where she heard it from. You gotta realise, I didn't believe this for a second." He said, looking nervous.

"But now you do." I said, looking at him.

"You telling ghost stories again Craig? Didn't you learn your lesson last time?" A voice sounded from the room behind the counter. I stood up to look at who was speaking. A young guy, around my age, stepped out into the store. He had reddish-brown hair cut short and mussed up a little, dazzling blue eyes and a three-day growth on his strong jawline. I found myself staring at him just a little longer than I should have.

"Who are you?" Dean asked, stepping back to the counter.

"Ewan McKay." He said, stepping forward and shaking Dean's hand. "Proprietor." Dean turned to me and rolled his eyes.

"Big word..." He muttered and I grinned.

I reached out a hand and shook his, it was soft and warm. "I'm Beth, this is Dean." I inclined my head the latter. "Aren't you a little young to own a store?" I asked. He smiled, and leaned against the door frame, crossing his arms casually across his chest.

"Actually, it's my mom's store, but she's overseas most of the time. So I've been running it for the last six months." He said, I detected a slight Scottish accent and it was quite lovely to listen to. Ewan turned his head to look at Craig and shook his head.

"Craig, man, you have to stop telling these ghost stories, someone's gonna end up hurt, if they haven't been already." He said.

"You guys, I'll tell you exactly what I told the police ok? That girl was real. This was not a prank. I swear to God, I don't want to go anywhere near that house ever again!" He looked genuinely scared, I mused over this, glancing over at Dean.

"Thanks." Dean said and started to leave.

Ewan was staring at me, I started to blush and stepped back from the counter. Dean was halfway out the store, Sam already waiting for us, when Ewan leaned forward and looked me in the eyes.

"Look, Beth. This is going to seem really forward, but I was wondering if you want to have dinner tonight?" He asked and I gaped.

"Oh?" I said, struggling to find the words.

"Look, I wouldn't normally ask a complete stranger out, but there's a really great new Italian restaurant that's opened up in town, they do a great cannelloni. If you're going to be staying in town for a few days chasing a story... well, you have to eat right?" He flashed me his smile, something told me that he usually got his way when it came to asking girls out. A bit like Dean. I could see why.

Dean cleared his throat from the middle of the store, I turned to see him looking at me with narrowed eyes.

"We do have that deadline..." He said pointedly to me. I raised an eyebrow and then turned back to look at Ewan.

"Sure we do. I know that." I said to Dean. "But like the man says, I have to eat sometime." Dean threw his hands in the air and walked out of the store, Sam followed, shaking his head. I smiled at Ewan, taking a moment to admire those baby blues, and gave him my number to make arrangements later.

* * *

**Hell House**

Dean was stonily silent on the way to the haunted house, which was our next stop. I caught him glancing over at me a few times, but he didn't say anything. I slid down in my seat and mentally started going through what I could wear on a 'date'... I rolled my eyes, I'd have to steal Dean's credit card later and go shopping.

The path up to the house was muddy and wet from recent rain fall. The house itself was tucked away at the back of the property among overgrown bushes and trees. The property hadn't been cared for in a long time. The exterior of the single storey house was beaten weatherboard, I was amazed they were even managing to stay on the frame of the house. Broken windows, overgrown gardens, and a ramshackle porch at the front made it seem all that much more creepy. It was dark, and mouldy, and reminiscent of what happens when people just stop caring.

"So much for curb appeal." I said, frowning.

Dean pulled out the EMF and started scanning the area. He sighed, looking up in the sky.

"You got something?" Sam asked from a few yards away.

"Yeeah... the EMFs no good." Dean said.

"Why not?" I asked.

He pointed to the overhead power lines he'd been looking at before. "I think that thing's still got a little juice in it, it's screwing with all the readings." He explained, he slipped the EMF back in his pocket and looked around.

I looked at the power box on the pole and frowned. "Yeah, that'd do it."

"Yeah. Come on, let's go." Dean said, leading the way into the house.

The interior of the house was as derelict as the outside. Candles were scattered all over the place, and water dripped through holes in the roof, echoing in puddles on the floor.

Dean whistled, looking at the various graffiti on the walls. "Looks like old man Murdoch was a bit of a tagger in his time." He said.

"And after his time too." Sam said, pointing. "That reverse cross has been used by Satanists for centuries, but this sigil of sulphur didn't show up in San Francisco until the '60s." Sam held up his phone and snapped a picture of the symbol.

Dean stared at Sam for a moment. "That is exactly why you never get laid." Dean quipped at his brother and I chuckled. Leave it to Dean to think about that. Sam shook his head and took some more pictures of the various symbols on the wall.

"What about this one, you seen it before?" I asked, pointing to a different wall. There was a cross with a dot in the middle of it, the bottom stroke was curved like an upside-down question mark.

Dean and Sam came up behind me, looking. Sam frowned. "No." He said.

I gazed at it, something about it looked familiar. "I have. Somewhere." I said vaguely.

Sam snapped a picture of it, and then rubbed at the symbol. "It's paint. Seems pretty fresh too." He said, looking at Dean.

Dean ran his hand over his face, thinking. "I don't know guys. You know I hate to agree with authority figures of any kind... but the cops may be right about this one." He said.

"Yeah, maybe." I said, looking around.

A noise sounded behind us, like someone moving in another room. Dean was instantly alert, moving toward it. We crossed into another room and there was a door on the other side. Dean and I pressed against the wall on one side, Sam on the other. Dean nodded and signalled three, and then opened the door. He and Sam swung into the room and then fell back into me bringing up the rear. A light was shining in our eyes and we all covered our faces trying to see.

"Oh cut. It's just a couple of humans." Said a young guy with a short military style hair cut. He was holding a massive spotlight in his hands He looked over at his companion, a dorky looking pale man with curly red hair and beard, chunky glasses perched on his nose – he was carrying a camcorder and both were dressed in khaki cargo pants and hunting jackets.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Dean bellowed.

"Ah-ha-ha." The red head said, looking at us. "We belong here, we're professionals." He said.

"Professional what?" I asked, stepping forward, rubbing my eyes which still had spots flashing across my retina.

"Paranormal investigators." He said, handing us all their business card. "There you go, take a look at that."

"Oh you gotta be kidding me." Dean said with a groan.

"Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spangler? Hell hounds .com , you guys run that website?" Sam asked, looking up at them.

"Yeah." The red-head, who was Ed replied, looking impressed with himself.

"Oh yeah, yeah, we're huge fans." Dean said sarcastically, walking past them and further into the room, which was revealed to be the kitchen.

"And ahh, we know who you guys are too." Ed said to us. Dean exchanged a look with me that said he surely hoped they didn't know who we were.

"Oh yeah?" Sam asked, curious.

"Amateurs." Ed said, nodding at us in a superior manner. Dean smirked and kept on looking around the room. "Looking for ghosts and cheap thrills." Ed finished.

"Yep. So if you guys don't mind, we're trying to conduct a serious scientific investigation here." The other guy, Harry, said.

"Yeah, what have you got so far?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Harry," Ed said. "Why don't ya tell 'em about EMF?"

"Well..." Harry hesitated, looking at us.

Sam looked at them with his puppy dog eyes and played dumb. "EMF?"

"Electromagnetic field?" Harry said in a condescending tone. "Spectral entities can cause energy fluctuations that can be read with an EMF detector. Like this bad boy here." He held up his version of an EMF meter and turned it on.

Dean smirked at me, shaking his head.

"Whoa. Whoa. It's 2.8mg!" Harry exclaimed, looking at the reading.

"2.8... it's hot in here." Ed said, looking excited.

Dean whistles in sarcastic admiration at the fools in front of us. I laughed and shook my head.

"Wow..." I said, looking awestruck at them.

"Huh." Dean said. "So have you guys ever really seen a ghost before, or..."

"Once. We were, uh... we were investigating this old house and we saw a vase fall right off the table." Ed said to us, looking so serious I had to bite my lip from laughing.

"By itself." Harry nodded, adding in his bit.

"Well, we didn't actually see it, we heard it. And something like that.. .it uh... it changes you." Ed said.

"Yeah, yeah I think I get the picture." Dean said, rolling his eyes. "We should go, let them get back to work." He said to me and Sam.

"Yeah, you should." Ed said.

We left them to it and headed back out to the car.

* * *

**Library**

While Sam was in the library doing some research, I decided to do a little shopping, ducking into one of the local little boutiques which sported a few different fashions. I emerged not long after with a few bags doing a mental check-list: mandatory little black dress, matching heels, little bag, and some new underwear, just for the heck of it. Dean was going to freak. I frowned at that thought and shook myself. What should I care what Dean thought? He'd made it more than clear where his priorities were.

I arrived at the car a few minutes before Dean and Sam. Tossing my bags in the back seat, I reached in to the front and started turning some of the knobs of the radio station, slipping a new cassette into the cassette player. Dean got back at the same time Sam came out of the library.

"Hey." Sam said, skipping up to us.

"Hey. What you got?" Dean asked, looking over at him.

"Well, I couldn't find a Mordechai but I did find a Martin Murdock who lived in that house in the '30s. He did have children but only two of them, both boys and there's no evidence he ever killed anyone." Sam informed us, casting an intrigued look at the shopping bags I was sporting.

"Huh." Dean said, stumped.

"What about you?" Sam asked Dean,

"Well those kids didn't really give us a clear description of that dead girl but I did hit up the police station. No matching missing persons, it's like she never existed. Dude come on, we did our digging, this one's a bust all right. For all we know those hell hound boys made up the whole thing." Dean said leaning on the roof of the car on the drivers side, looking back at us.

Sam looked at me, and I shrugged, I couldn't disagree. "Yeah, all right." Sam nodded.

"I say we find ourselves a bar and some beers and leave the legends to the locals." Dean suggested, getting into the car. Sam moved to get in the front seat but I held his arm for a few moments. He looked at me and I silently counted... 1... 2... 3

Dean turned on the car and the South American music tape I'd put in the player blasted salsa music right in Dean's face, the wipers I'd turned on were beating furiously across the windshield. Dean roared back with a shout and hurried to turn everything off. Sam was laughing as he climbed into the front seat. I slid into the back seat next to my purchases, Dean turned to glare at me.

I licked my finger and marked an imaginary '1' in the air with a challenging look.

"That's all you got?" Dean asked, looking at me. I chuckled. "Weak." He said. "That is bush league!" Sam just laughed harder as we pulled away.

**Motel**

I was washed, dressed, and ready for my date. I ran a brush through my hair, flipping it behind me as I slipped into my new heels and checked my reflection in the mirror. Dean appeared behind me, watching with disapproving eyes.

"You know you really shouldn't be going out when we're on a case." He said with a scowl.

"Oh please, you said it yourself, this case is a dead end." I said, turning to look at him with a smirk.

His eyes ran the length of my body, taking in the short black dress, the bare legs, and the heels. He shifted uncomfortably, I smiled inside, just the reaction I was going for. I shook myself and slid past him, brushing against his side.

"You know, Dad wouldn't approve." He offered, weakly, following me across the motel room as I picked up my bag and shrugged into my black leather jacket.

"Dad's not here." I said, winking at Sam who was gaping at me. I opened the motel room door and skipped outside, Dean hot on my heels.

"Yeah, well maybe I don't approve!" He called after me and I stopped to look at him. I shrugged and offered a weak smile.

"Sorry!" Then I half walked half ran down the pavement before I gave in and returned to the motel. I glanced back for a moment to see Dean standing, arms crossed, in the doorway before I saw Ewan getting out of his car and waving to me. I plastered a smile to my face and hurried to meet him.

Ewan was every bit the gentleman that I'd thought he would be. Dinner had been a hit, and I found myself really relaxing in his company and enjoying myself. He was a funny guy, and I hadn't laughed so much in a long while, I found my chest aching a little from the strain of laughing, of just being _normal. _

He took me dancing after dinner, to a little club that played 80s and 90s music and kept people on the move. I smiled, heading to the dance floor, shrugging out of my jacket and leaving it hanging on the back of an empty chair. Ewan's eyes watched me as I melted into the group, gesturing for him to follow, and happily, he did. It was getting late and I didn't care, let Dean sit up all night if that was what he wanted, I was going to enjoy myself.

It was getting on to 1am and we were now taking a moonlit stroll through the town's botanical gardens. Ewan was telling me about the different night blooming flowers we were seeing, turned out he had worked with his grandfather in the horticultural industry for a while, so he knew about them, he'd even helped plant some of the very flowers we were looking at.

"And so, you work with your brothers... that must be painful at times." He was saying.

I laughed and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, it can be. Though it's all going to change soon, Sammy is going to college in the Fall." I said sadly.

"You seem sad." Ewan said, looking at me.

"Well, yeah, I mean it's a big thing, him wanting to leave. He hasn't even broken the news to Dad or Dean yet." I said quietly.

"I can't see why he'd be disappointed in his son wanting to go to college." Ewan mused and I nodded.

I shrugged. "Well you don't know our Dad..." I said, trailing off.

We walked silently, with his hand resting softly at the small of my back, and I leaned into his warmth, enjoying the touch. We came to a small clearing and there was a water fountain in the centre, lit up by different coloured lights. I gasped in delight and went to check it out.

"It's beautiful." I said, smiling.

"Not nearly as beautiful as you." Ewan said and I raised my eyebrow.

"Oh, now that's corny." I laughed and he broke into a smile.

"You think so?" He asked, and I nodded.

"Yeah, maybe it is." He laughed, turning to look at the water. His eyes sparkled in the light and I found myself blushing, glancing at him shyly.

He looked at me a few times and then seemed to make up his mind about something. I barely had a moment to think before he reached out a hand and slid it under my hair, cupping my neck.

"I've had a really great time tonight Beth, I'm glad you decided to get something to eat." He smiled, looking into my eyes.

I returned the smile, happily. "Yeah, me too." I said, looking up at him.

He kissed me tentatively at first, brushing his lips across mine as if asking permission, and when I opened my mouth just slightly he pulled me against him, holding me against his firm body. I gasped as he deepened the kiss, sliding his hands down my back, circling his fingers at the small of my back.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him in to me, as I felt my knees go a little weak. It'd been a long, long time since someone had kissed me like this and it was dizzying. I leaned in to him, enjoying the feel of his hands on me

Suddenly there was the sound of a voice being cleared behind us and we broke apart. I looked up and rolled my eyes when I saw him there. Dean, in his brown jacket just looking on. _What had he followed us?_

"Dean, what are you doing here?" I asked frustrated.

"Came to collect you from your... date." He said with flashing eyes.

"Well maybe I'm not ready to be collected." I snapped at him. He looked at his watch and raised his eyebrow. Ewan frowned, looking between the two of us.

"Come on," he said. "It's late."

I stared him down, and he stared back at me. He won.

I turned and sighed to Ewan. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to have to run off like this." I told him. He smiled and shrugged.

"Well, maybe we can meet for lunch sometime?" He asked, and I smiled.

"Yeah, I'd like that." I said. Ewan glanced at Dean, who was still staring at us impatiently. Then he turned to me with a smile as if to say he wasn't intimidated by my brother. He leaned down and kissed me again, long, drawn out, completely knee-buckling. I found myself a little breathless at the end of it and had to shake my head to clear the clouds.

"Wow." I breathed, and he laughed.

"Well that kind of a reaction I can live with." He chuckled.

"Beth..." Dean growled at me and I threw him my death look.

I sighed and bid Ewan good night and stormed ahead of Dean back toward the parking lot.

"What the hell was that?" Dean asked as we walked.

"What was what Dean?" I asked, angrily.

"The kiss... the... well, all of it! Do you know you've been gone all night?!" He said, moving in close to face me.

"It's called a _date _Dean! People have them you know! But I know you know, after all, you're allowed to go sleep with whoever you want, whenever you want! What about all the nights you don't come home?!" I kept walking and he had to hurry to keep up.

"Is that what this is about?!" Dean asked walking after me. I stopped and turned to face him.

"It's not _about _anything Dean! Except maybe your god damn double standards." I stared at him for a moment and then turned and walked away again.

"Come on Beth, you know I didn't mean it." Dean said, following me.

"Well what did you mean Dean?" I asked, turning to face him again, putting my hand on his chest. "Hmm?"

He paused, thinking. There was frustration in his eyes, but something more. _Was he jealous? _I opened my eyes wider and pushed the idea out of my head. _No, don't even go there. _

He looked at me a little longer, and I realised just how close we were, I went to pull away but he reached out to me, eyes meeting mine. I stared uncertainly at him. He brushed a finger along my cheek to my hairline. Looking into my eyes, his eyes changed and he looked at me with a hunger. He leaned down and caught my lips with his, and I found myself caught without breath. He pulled me in to him, changing the angle of his head to deepen the kiss.

I moaned, closing my eyes and leaning in to him, hands going up to slide around his neck, run up into his hair as I held his head. There was nothing around us, all I could feel was the urgency of his mouth on mine, the night had faded until it was just us, and the feel of his lips against mine, his hair under my hands. It felt right, and the angst that had been happening between us for the last year or more just disappeared in the moment.

Then he pulled away, his eyes flickering from desire to something else... resignation. I stepped back, emotions washed across his face as he fought with himself.

"Dean..." I said, not knowing what to say.

"I shouldn't have done that." He said, and I blinked. "We can't. I'm sorry." He turned and walked away from me, and I felt a dull ache rise to clutch at my heart.

John's words came back to me, causing a twinge of regret and soreness. He'd been quite clear on how he wouldn't tolerate any kind of involvement between any of us when he'd taken me in. I was their sister, nothing more. I sighed. Someone needed to tell my heart that. My heart was a mile a minute, and I struggled to get my emotions in check. I couldn't get the look of regret that had been in Dean's eyes out of my head.

I shook my head and resolved to do better. To lock it all away. John had saved my life, the least I could do was honour his wishes. I couldn't imagine a life without them in it, my only joy in those hours spent on the road, singing, laughing, enjoying each other's company. It wasn't too much to ask to put aside my own personal feelings in order to maintain that status quo.

I walked back to the Impala. Dean was sitting silently in the front. When I got in, he started the car, heading back to the motel. Sam was in my bed, snoring away. I sighed, grabbing a pair of sweatpants and top and going into the bathroom to change. I tossed all my newly acquired gear into the corner of the bathroom – I'd be leaving it here, no point in taking it where I was going.

I padded back into the motel room, Dean was now in his bed, lying sullenly on his side, ignoring me. I climbed into bed with Sam, turning to face outwards, my back pressed comfortingly against him. Sam turned to give me a hug and kiss on the cheek, not the same kind of kiss, this one a true brotherly one.

"Hey Beth, did you have a good time?" He asked sleepily.

"Yeah, I did. But you can ask me about it tomorrow. Go back to sleep." I said quietly. He nodded and rolled over, his back to mine. I tossed and turned, staring at Dean's back in the other bed. Sam was asleep again within minutes, he never seemed to have a problem getting to sleep, finally after an hour sleep claimed me.

I was awakened way too early.

"Beth!" Dean was shaking me. I groaned against the light in the room. "Come on Beth, we gotta go." He said, a little gentler than usual. Sam was already moving around the room. I glanced at the clock, I'd had three hours sleep and I felt wrecked. I looked at Dean, he didn't look much better.

We were in the Impala and headed for Hell House within fifteen minutes. There were police everywhere, along with a coroner's van – a girl's body was being brought out on a stretcher.

We walked up to a man standing outside.

"What happened?" Dean asked, nodding at the building.

"A couple of cops say a girl hung herself in the house." He replied, looking on grimly.

"Suicide?" I asked, peering over at the body.

"Yeah. She was a straight A student, with a full ride to UT too. It just don't make sense." He said, walking away.

"What do you think?" Sam asked us.

"I think maybe we missed something." Dean said with a frown. I agreed.

* * *

**Hell House  
****_Later that evening_**

We were crouched in the bushes by the farm house, a police car was still parked out the front. A couple of cops patrolled the outside with flash-lights.

"I guess the cops don't want anyone else screwing around in there." Sam said, nodding at them.

"Yeah, but we still gotta get in there." Dean said.

We were distracted my some whispering, and Dean looked around. He threw a grin at me. "I don't believe it."

I turned around to look and spotted Ed and Harry, from the website, approaching the house. They were hunched over some sort of gadget, with a bunch more hanging off their jackets. They hadn't seen the police and were whispering and muttering to themselves as they approached the house.

"I got an idea." Dean said, rising up a little bit to creep closer to the cops.

He cupped a hand to his mouth and called out "Who you gonna call!" The police looked up immediately, but all they saw were Ed and Harry – we were out of sight. The pair looked startled and confused, and then the police were shining their lights toward that.

"Hey you!" An officer yelled at them, and started running after them. We heard a few shouts of _Freeze! Come Back! _Mixed with _Run _from the qhost hunters as they were chased by the police down the path.

Dean and I stood, laughing and appreciating the sight of these yahoos running into the night. The three of us hurried over to the house and moved in.

Sam handed out some tins of rock salt, along with a couple of fire pokers made from iron. Dean turned on a flash-light and started looking around.

I spied the symbol on the wall again, and frowned. "Where have I seen that symbol before? It's killing me!" I said, shaking my head.

"Come on, we don't have much time." Sam said and we found the stairs to the basement, going down them.

Dean was looking at a row of jars on some shelves and picked up one to take a closer look. A pale red liquid sloshed around in side.

"Hey Sammy. I dare you to take a swig of this." He said. Sam looked at him like he was nuts.

"Why the hell would I do that for?" Sam asked, frowning.

"I double dare you..." Dean said with a grin, like that was going to change everything.

Sam shook his head and looked away. Dean laughed. A noise sounded from a cabinet and I moved toward the cabinet with Dean. He nodded and I opened the door, a bunch of rats spilled out, squeaking as they were startled from their hiding place.

Dean did a little dance. "Argggh! I hate rats!" He exclaimed.

I raised an eyebrow. "You'd rather it was a ghost?" I asked.

"Yes!" Dean said looking around at his feet. I chuckled and turned to look at Sam.

"Beth!" Sam yelled out my name and I felt myself being yanked backwards by Dean. I landed on my butt, spinning around to see Mordechai behind me and an axe swinging down right where I had been. Sam swung his iron poker through the spectre but it didn't do anything. Dean stepped in front of me and swung his poker, the spectre wavered, and I threw rock salt at it, nothing. One more swing from Dean and the ghost misted away.

"What the hell kind of spirit is immune to iron and salt?" I asked, getting to my feet.

"I dunno. Come on. Come on come on." Dean said, hands on my back, pushing me toward the stairs, Sam running ahead of us. Beside us the shelves broke as Mordechai's axe smashed through them raining bits of smashed jars and liquid across the room. Dean and I fell to the floor jumping out of the way of the debris, and rolled to our knees.

Across the room I saw the spirit attack Sam, who was now wrestling with him, hands on a very solid and real axe.

"Go! Get out of here!" Sam yelled at us. I ran past him, and Dean stepped up to grab at Mordechai, pulling him back and giving Sam enough time to break away. They both ran for the stairs and the axe swung at them, missing and hitting an electrical box instead, sparks flying everywhere.

We sprinted up the stairs in the darkness, heading for the exit, the ghost could reappear at any time. Sam and I fell through the door at the same time, rolling to the ground, Dean stumbling behind us. We all sprung to our feet and I spotted Harry and Ed, back and filming, staring at us in shock.

"Get that damn thing out of my face." Dean growled, indicating the camera that Ed was holding, and pushed me ahead of him. Sam was ahead of us shouting for us to go, and we chased after him. I glanced back to see the pair of idiots standing and screaming like little girls as Mordechai came to the door, and then the spectre faded as it started to cross the threshold. Not before the police grabbed Harry and Ed though.

* * *

**Motel Room**

Dean was pacing the room, I was sitting on the bed drawing that symbol that was bugging me. "What the hell is this symbol? It's bugging the hell out of me." I said. Sam was paging through some books, frowning.

Dean paused and looked over at me. "This whole damn job's bugging me. I thought the legend said Mordechai only goes after chicks."

"It does." Sam said.

"All right. Well that explains why it attacked Beth... and you. But why me?" Dean asked with a grin.

"Hilarious!" Sam said, with a forced laugh. "The legend also says he hung himself, but did you see those slit wrists?"

Dean stopped pacing. "Yeah." He said, frowning and sitting on the bed near me.

"What's up with that? And the axe too. I mean, ghosts are usually pretty strict right? Following the same patterns over and over again?" I asked, looking up.

"But this mook keeps changing." Dean said, rubbing his face with his hand, he looked tired.

Sam was clicking away on the laptop. "Exactly. I'm telling you, the way the story goes..." He paused, reading something on the screen. "Wait a minute..."

"What?" Dean asked, looking up.

"Someone added a new post to the Hell Hound site. Listen to this. 'They say Mordechai Murdock was really a Satanist who chopped up his victims with an axe before slitting his own wrists. Now he's imprisoned in the house for eternity.'" Sam looked up, troubled.

Dean was staring at the symbol I'd drawn, suddenly he sat up straighter, moving closer to look at it.

"Where the hell is this going?" Sam asked.

"I don't know but I think I might know where it all started." He said, taking the drawing from my hands.

* * *

**Music Shop  
****_Next Morning_**

We waited until the store opened and then we went in to talk to Craig again. He was sitting at the counter looking depressed.

"Hey Craig. Remember us?" Dean asked, going up to the counter.

"Guys, look I'm really not in the mood to answer any of your questions, ok?" Craig said, sighing.

"Oh, don't worry. We're just here to buy an album, that's all." Dean said, flicking through a display case and picking up a CD case.

"You know, Beth is right, that symbol did look familiar." Dean said to Sam, I looked over at Dean and frowned. "I only just realised that it doesn't mean anything. It's the logo for the _Blue Oyster Cult." _

It dawned on me, and I nodded. _Ahhh. _

Dean turned a stern eye to Craig. "Tell me Craig. You into Blue Oyster Cult? Or just scaring the hell out of people? Why don't you tell us about that house... without lying through your ass this time."

Craig sighed and looked at us. "All right, um. My cousin Dana was on break from TCU. I guess we were just bored, looking for something to do. So I showed her this abandoned dump I found. We thought it would be funny if we made it look like it was haunted. So we painted symbols on the wall, some from albums, some from some of Dana's theology textbooks. Then we found out this guy Murdock used to live there so...we made up some story to go along with that. So they told people, who told other people. And then these two guys put it on their stupid website. Everything just took on a life of it's own. I mean I thought it was funny at first but...that girl's dead! It was just a joke, you know. I mean, none of it was real, we just made the whole thing up. I swear!"

"Hmm." I said thoughtfully. Thinking about all this new information.

"All right." Sam said, looking at Dean. Dean shrugged and turned to leave.

"If none of it was real, how the hell do you explain Mordechai?" Dean asked me as we walked out the door. I had no answer.

"Beth!" I turned to hear Ewan's voice.

"_Beth!" _Dean said mockingly under his breath, rolling his eyes. He looked at me, a strange look in his eyes. I ignored him and turned to smile at the man now walking toward me.

"Hey, did you want to grab that lunch?" He asked with a smile.

"Ewan, yes, that sounds great." I smiled back, Dean looked furious. We agreed to meet up in a few hours at the local diner, he assured me that there was great burgers to be had.

**Motel Room**

I was in the shower, Sam had gone to the library down the street and was meeting us at the diner. I heard someone come back into the room and then Dean yelled out to me. "Hey I'm back!"

I called out to him. "Hey, where were you?" I turned off the shower and stepped out. I'd tied my towel around my hair to keep it dry, and grabbed one of the other towels off the towel rack to use. I started rubbing my arms and face.

"Oh, I went out." Dean replied from the other side of the bathroom door. I paused, smelling the towel – it smelled like Dean. I frowned, this wasn't helping shove all those things I was feeling down inside. I sighed and finished towelling off, staring at the towel a little longer. Things were starting to get awkward.

I roused myself from my thoughts. "So, I think I might have a theory about what's going on." I called out through the door. Dean was moving around in the other room, I could hear him.

"Oh yeah?" He asked.

"Yeah. What if Mordechai is a Tulpa?" I said, putting on my bra and slipping into a t-shirt. I tied a towel around my waist, the rest of my clothes were in the main room.

"Tulpa?" Dean asked

"Yeah, a Tibetan thought form." I said opening the bathroom door.

Dean spun around to face me as I emerged from the bathroom, he was standing by the bed Sam and I had slept in last night.

"Ahh, yeah, I know what a Tulpa is." He said. "Hey come on, get dressed, I want to go eat." Dean walked past me into the bathroom and I shook my head. I picked up my underwear off the bed and slipped into them, letting the towel drop to the floor, I followed with a pair of jeans and some boots, and was ready to go.

* * *

**Diner**

We got to the diner half an hour before I was to meet Ewan. The boys ordered their food, I just got a coffee. We took a booth and Sam sat down with the laptop.

"So, ahhh, all right, what about these tulpas?" Dean asked, looking at me.

I took a sip of coffee, thinking. "OK, so there was this incident in Tibet in the 1900s. A group of monks visualised a golem in their head. They meditated on it so hard they brought the thing to life. Out of thin air." I said, looking at Dean, he shrugged.

"So?" He said.

"Dean, that was 20 monks," Sam chimed in. "Imagine what 10,000 web surfers could do." I nodded.

"Craig starts a story about Mordechai, then it spreads, goes online. Now there are countless people all believing in this guy." I said, frowning. There was a strange itching in my pants, I adjusting, trying to get away from it.

"Now wait a second. Are you trying to tell me that just because people believe in Mordechai he's real?" Dean asked, looking at me, a twinkle in his eye.

I grimaced, and shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, no, I don't know. Maybe." I said.

"Beth, what is your problem?" Dean said with a raised eyebrow, looking at me.

"Huh? Nothing. I'm fine." I said.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said through narrowed eyes. He smirked.

"Yeah well people believe in Santa Claus, how come I'm not getting hooked up every Christmas?" Dean said, going back to the subject.

"Cause you're a bad person." Sam said with a snicker. "And because of this..." He spun the laptop around and showed us a photo of one of the symbols he'd taken in the Hell House.

"That's a Tibetan spirit sigil. On the wall of the house." He said.

I nodded. "Craig said they were painting symbols from a theology textbook. Maybe they painted this not even knowing what it was."

"That sigil has been used for centuries, concentrating meditative thoughts like a magnifying glass. So people are on the Hell Hounds website, staring at the symbol, thinking about Mordechai...I mean I don't know, but it might be enough to bring a Tulpa to life.." Sam said, looking at us both.

"It would explain why he keeps changing." Dean agreed.

I grimaced and adjusted myself again, what the hell was going on? Why was I so itchy? Dean looked casually over at me.

"Right, as the legend changes, people think different things, so the legend itself changes." Sam said.

"Like a game of telephone." I said thoughtfully. "That would explain why the rock salt and iron didn't work."

"Yeah, because it's not a traditional spirit." Dean said.

"Yeah." I said, reaching down to scratch at my thigh through my jeans.

Dean looked at Sam. "OK. So why don't we just … uhh... get this spirit sigil off the wall and off the website?" He asked.

"Well it's not that simple. You see, once Tulpas are created, they take on a life of their own." I said.

"Great. So if he really is a thought form, how the hell are we supposed to kill an idea?" Dean asked.

Sam looked up. "Well it's not going to be easy with these guys helping us. Check out their home page." He pointed to a post from the night before. "Since they've posted the footage from last night, their number of hits have quadrupled in the last day alone."

"Hmph." Dean said, leaning back. "I got an idea, come on."

"Where are we going?" Sam asked.

"We gotta find a copy store." Dean said, looking at me as I fidgeted. "You staying for your lunch date?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

I frowned. "No, I gotta cancel." I said. "I'm going back to the motel for another shower, I think I'm allergic to that new soap powder or something." I said itching.

Dean smiled at me, the look broadening to a full on grin.

"Oh no, itching powder? No way Dean, you did this?" I asked, pulling at my jeans.

Dean started laughing heading for the door.

"You're a frigging jerk!" I called out to him, he turned to face me.

"Oh yeah." He said, licking his finger and drawing the letter one in the air. I stared at him. _Oh this was war. _

* * *

**Trailer Park**

After a shower, and some new, clean underwear, I'd made my excuses to Ewan telling him I needed to follow up on a story lead. He was more than accommodating. I found myself appreciating a nice, easy going guy to talk to.

I rejoined the boys and we were now standing at the front of the trailer we'd been told belonged to Harry and Ed.

Dean pounded on the door and we could hear scurrying about as the pair inside debated opening the door.

"Who is it?" Came a voice.

"Come on out here guys, we hear you in there." Dean answered, throwing me a grin.

"It's them!" Came a comment inside, and then they stuck their heads out the door, they were still dressed in their full 'hunting' gear, and Dean snorted, looking behind them.

"Ah would you look at that! Action figures in their original packaging, what a shock." He said, looking back at me.

I was still mad from earlier so I ignored him. "Guys we need to talk." I said, looking at Harry and Ed.

"Yeah, um, sorry guys. We're ahhh, a little bit busy right now." Ed said to us, coming out of the trailer.

"OK Well we'll make it quick. We need you to shut down your website." Dean said.

The guys started laughing at us, like we were asking them to cut off a limb or something. "Well, you guys gut us busted last night, we spent the night in a holding cell..." Ed said.

"I had to pee in that cell urinal. In front of people! And I get stage fright." Harry said. Sam chuckled.

"Look guys. We all know what we saw last night, what's in that house. But now thanks to your website there are thousands of people hearing about Mordechai." Sam said, and the guys nodded at them.

"That's right, which means people are going to keep showing up at the Hell House, running into him in person. Somebody could get hurt." Dean said, looking at them.

"Yeah, yeah..." Ed said... but he was more looking pleased at the following he had.

"Ed, maybe he's got a point, maybe..." Harry was interrupted before he could even finish the sentence.

"Nope." Ed said, shaking his head.

"No." Harry echoed, looking at us.

"We have an obligation to our fans, to the truth." Ed said, looking at us.

"Well I have an obligation to kick both your little asses right now." Dean growled at them, taking a step forward.

I grabbed his arm. "Dean, Dean. It's ok." I said, then looked at Ed and Harry. "Hey, just forget it all right? These guys... could probably bitch slap them both, I could probably even tell them that thing about Mordechai... but they still won't help us. Let's just go." I said, pushing at him.

"Whoa... whoa..." Harry and Ed said to us both.

Dean looked at me, a twinkle in his eyes as we played out our little act. "Yeah, you're right." He said to me, I had a moment to realise his lips were just inches from mine, and he was looking at me a little harder than usual. I blinked, and then Sam was pulling us both back, walking away.

"Come on, let's go." Sam said, looking at us both, playing his part too.

"What did you say about?" Ed was saying and Harry was looking at us anxiously.

"Hand on a second here." Harry called out.

"What thing about Mordechai guys?" Ed asked.

"Don't tell them Beth." Dean warned me, a small twitch to his mouth which the boys couldn't see.

"But, if they agree to shut down their website Dean..." Sam said from beside us, we looked at him.

"They're not going to do it, you said so yourself." Dean said to Sam.

"No wait! Wait! Don't listen to him ok? We'll do it. We'll do it." Ed said.

I went to open my mouth and Dean covered my mouth with his hand, moving in close. "It's a secret Beth." He said to me.

Sam looked at the guys. "Look, it's a really big deal all right. And it wasn't easy to dig up. So only if we have your word that you'll shut everything down." He said, and the guys nodded.

"Totally." Ed said.

Sam looked back at me and Dean reluctantly removed his hand from my mouth. I pulled out some paperwork from my bag and handed it to the boys.

"It's a death certificate." I said. "From the 30's. We got it at the library. Now according to the coroner, the actual cause of death was a self-inflicted gun shot wound."

The guys nodded.

"That's right, he didn't hang or cut himself." Dean said.

"He shot himself?" Ed asked.

"Yep. With a .45 pistol. To this day they say he's terrified of them." I said, looking at the boys.

"Matter of fact, they say if you shoot him with a .45, loaded with these special wrought-iron rounds it'd kill the son of a bitch." Dean said, nailing the final part of the story.

Ed and Harry sniggered at us, looking excited. They'd taken it, hook, line and sinker. They made their excuses, saying they were going to go take down the story right away, hurrying back into their little trailer. We watched them go, and when they were out of sight, we headed back to the car.

* * *

**Cafe**

We were sitting in a little cafe, waiting for Harry and Ed to update the website. There was a 3d artwork of a fisherman holding a big fish. If you pulled the cord it made the fisherman's mouth move and laugh obnoxiously. It was annoying as all hell, and Dean was obsessed with it. Sam was glaring at his brother as Dean pulled the cord again.

Sam reached out and pulled the cord roughly to stop it. "If you pull that string one more time I'm gonna kill you." He threatened Dean.

Dean looked at him all deadpan, staring, and reached out pulling the string in an effort to annoy his brother. Sam stopped it again, glaring. I took a swig of my beer and grimaced.

"Come on man, you need more laughter in your life. You know you're way too tense." Dean sniggered at his brother.

Sam gave him another glare and Dean sighed looking at me for support, I shrugged to let him know he wasn't getting anything out of me right now, we were at war.

"They post it yet?" Dean asked. I looked over at the screen from where I was sitting next to Sam. Sam looked at me and stabbed at his salad angrily.

"'We've learned from reputable sources that Mordechai Murdock has a fatal fear of firearms.'" I read from the website, looking up at Dean.

"All right. How long do we wait?" Dean asked.

"Long enough for the new story to spread, and the legend to change." Sam said.

"By nightfall the iron rounds should work on the sucker." I said, reading the rest of the article. I held out my beer to Dean with a smile, and he lifted his own to tap mine.

"Sweet." Dean said with a smile. He took a long drink from his beer and I couldn't wipe the smile from my face. Dean went to put his bottle down, the look on his face when he realised it was stuck was priceless. Sam and I cracked up laughing and Dean stared at his hand, confused.

"You didn't." He said, looking at me.

I laughed and held up the super glue I'd been hiding. "Oh, I so did." I smiled. Sam reached up and pulled the string on the fisherman, setting it to laughing again, while Dean glared at us.

* * *

**Hell House**

It was night time. Sam was off in the bushes setting up the fisherman we'd stolen from the cafe. It started laughing away off in the distance and the police officers who were posted out the front of the farm house looked at each other – then they went to investigate.

Dean and I slipped across the clearing to the house, Sam came running around from the back and joined us. We had our guns with us this time, loaded with iron ammo. Dean shifted the grip on his gun, grimacing at me.

"I barely have any skin left on my palm." He grumbled at me.

"I'm not touching that line with a ten foot pole." I said, grinning.

Dean shone his flash-light in my eyes and I flinched from the sudden blindness. I turned and moved into another room. Sam was behind me.

"So you think old Mordechai's home?" Dean asked from the other room.

"I don't know." I muttered.

"Me either." We jumped at the sound of Ed behind us, spinning to point our guns at them.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Ed cried out, putting his hands in the air.

"What are you trying to get yourselves killed?" I asked, lowering my gun.

"We're just trying to get a book and movie deal, ok?" Ed asked, looking at us.

There was a sound that came from the basement. It sounded like knives being sharpened. Dean and Sam looked at me, we were suddenly all on alert again.

"Oh crap." Ed muttered behind us. Both he and Harry crowded in close behind us, Harry had the camera out.

"Ah guys, you wanna... you wanna open that door for me?" Ed asked.

"Why don't you?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow.

We didn't have to argue about it because within seconds Mordechai burst through the door holding an axe and screaming at us. I didn't hesitate and emptied my gun into him, all rounds, until the gun clicked empty. Sam and Dean had done the same.

The spectre wavered, and then disappeared into mist. Dean looked at me and I nodded, heading to one of the other rooms to check if they were clear, he moved opposite me, Sam bringing up the rear.

"Oh God. He's gone. He's gone." Ed was saying behind us.

"Did you get him?" Harry asked.

"Yeah they got him." Ed said.

"No, on camera, did you get him on camera." Harry was asking and I turned to gape at them. Were they serious?

Harry opened the camera to check and suddenly Mordechai appeared before him slamming the axe right through the camera, Harry fell to the ground, unhurt, screaming.

"Dean!" I shouted, and he turned.

"Hey! Didn't you guys post that bullshit story we gave you?" Dean yelled.

"Of course we did." Ed said.

Sam appeared back in the doorway, gun at the ready. I was reloading from my pocket, looking around.

"But then our server crashed." Harry finished and I sighed.

"It didn't take." I said to Dean and he groaned.

"Great. Any ideas guys?" He asked, looking from Sam to me.

"We are getting out of here." Harry said, looking scared. Ed agreed.

They ran past Dean to the other room and I saw Mordechai appear in front of them again. They screamed, running for the front door but they couldn't get it open. Mordechai was advancing on them, I ran after them with my gun drawn, but it wouldn't help.

Ed was crouched by the door chanting some crap from _The Exorcist. _"The power of Christ compels you, the power of Christ compels you, the power of Christ compels you!" Naturally it had no effect.

"Hey! Come and get me you ugly son of a bitch!" I yelled, and Mordechai spun to look at me. I had a moment to regret doing that before Dean stepped in front of me, blocking the axe that was now swinging toward my head. He struggled with Mordechai, slamming against the wall. Mordechai was stronger, he had the power of thousands of people behind him. He got Dean pinned against the wall, axe across his throat.

"Get out of here now!" I yelled at Harry and Ed.

Sam came running back into the room, splashing kerosene everywhere. I picked up a shovel nearby and moved up. Dean was gasping for breath, Mordechai choking him with the axe. I swung the shovel and hit Mordechai in the head, he wavered slightly, but not enough. Then Sam was upon us with a spray bottle of something, and a lighter. He lit the flame and sprayed, a torch of fire spreading before us. Mordechai disappeared.

I grabbed Dean under the shoulders and pulled him to the door. "Come on!" Sam was right behind us. I looked at Sam and he held up the lighter, I laughed at the absurdity of the plan, but it could work.

"Mordechai can't leave the house, we can't kill him? We improvise." Sam said, and tossed the lit lighter into the house. It erupted in flames and we watched as it burned.

"That's your solution? Burn the whole damn place to the ground?" Dean asked.

"Well nobody will go in anymore." I said, nodding at the plan. "Mordechai can't haunt a house if there's no house to haunt. It's fast and dirty, but it works."

Sam was thinking, and looked at me. "What if the legend changes again and Mordechai is allowed to leave the house?" He said.

"Well, then we'll just have to come back." Dean said, rubbing his throat where he'd been pinned against the wall.

We watched the house burn to the ground.

"Kind of makes you wonder. Of all the things we've hunted, that Dad's hunted, how many existed just because people believed in them." Sam said quietly. Dean looked troubled at that thought, truth be told it didn't sit real comfortably with me either.

* * *

**Somewhere in town**

Sam had wanted to check in on Harry and Ed before we left, Dean and I weren't sure why, but that was just what Sam did – checked on the little guys. We'd tracked them down to the local grocery store and were waiting for them outside at one of the public picnic tables.

"I was thinking that Mordechai has a really super high attack bonus." Harry was saying to Ed as they approached us.

"Man, I got the munchies right now." Ed muttered and then looked at Dean and Sam. "Gentlemen!" He said, then inclined his head to me. "And lady..."

"Hey guys," Sam said, standing up. Dean and I stayed leaning against the picnic table.

The guys stopped when Sam stood up and turned to face us.

"Should we tell them?" Harry asked, and Ed shrugged.

"Might was well, you know, they're going to read about it in the trades." He said.

Harry looked back at us.

"So this morning we got a phone call from a very important Hollywood producer."

"Oh yeah?" Dean asked. "Wrong number?"

Ed forced a laugh. "No, smart ass. She read all about the Hell House on our website and wants to option the motion picture rights. Maybe even have us write it."  
They put their grocery bags in a very full car, slamming the trunk closed.

"And create the RPG." Harry said to us.

"The what?" Dean asked.

"Role playing game." Ed explained to Dean, rolling his eyes.

"Riiiight." Dean said with a grimace at me.

"A little lingo for you." Ed said. "Excuse us, we're off to la-la land." He turned to go get in the car.

"Well, congratulations guys, that sounds really great." Sam said smiling to them.

"Yeah. Awesome. Best of luck to you." I added with a wave.

"Oh, yeah, luck. That has nothing to do with it. It's about talent. Sheer unabashed talent." Ed said, nodding to Harry who returned his nod. They got in the car and started pulling away. Dean leaned against me, shoulder to shoulder, inclining his head toward them.

"Wow..." He said, a smile playing on his lips.

"I have a confession to make." I said, and he looked at me.

"What's that?" He asked.

"I... uh... I was the one that called them and told them I was a producer." I said with a smile.

Dean laughed. "Yeah, well I'm the one who put the dead fish in their back seat." He started laughing harder and I joined him, leaning my head on his shoulder.

"Truce?" He asked me, looking down.

I looked up into his eyes, seeing his affection there, somehow it kind of felt all right, we were sort of back to normal.

"Yeah, truce." I said. "At least for the next 100 miles." I smiled. He nodded.

"We good?" He asked, uncertainty playing in his eyes. I knew then that he was battling the same old terms and conditions John had put on us that I was. Duty first. Be a good son and daughter. I smiled sadly and looked at him.

"Yeah, we're good." I promised, and he looked relieved.

Hooking his arm around my neck, he pulled me to the Impala where Sam was waiting for us, a confused look on his face.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES (Sorry for the length, I'm tired, and it seems I prattle when I'm tired) LOL**

* * *

_Song for this chapter is: True Love by Pink feat. Lily Allen_

_I love this song, it's not my idea of a perfect relationship, I've done the whole love/hate relationships and they're too tiring – love shouldn't hurt in my opinion. But this song did sound like how I picture Dean and Beth in their pre-relationship years._

* * *

_I had this chapter finished hours ago and then got caught up watching funny SPN clips on youtube. Man Misha Collins is a funny guy. So, now I really gotta get to bed! Haha_

* * *

_Thanks for all your reviews again :D Please keep them coming, I love to hear what you think about it all!_

_Hello to the new followers :D Hope you're enjoying the story._

* * *

_This one was written to be set about 6 months before Dean and Beth get officially involved. Hence why things are a little more escalated than I imagine they would have been when she was like 18... I may do a flashback to that age group too if it comes up. It's also why they're using tins of rock salt and iron pokers instead of guns with rock salt ammo - if I take this back to this timeline, they hadn't create the ammo yet. That happens after Sam goes to college._

* * *

_Next one might run from a Dean POV at some point, possibly. Will see when I'm writing it._

* * *

_Shout out to the delicious (and someone who IMO has to be one of the most perfect men alive) Ewan McGregor with Beth's love interest :) Yummy yum! McKay is a shout out to my Scottish lineage on my mother's side of the family._

* * *

_Question time: Only because I've been re-reading some of these chapters again and getting a kick out of it – I'm sadly very obsessed with my own character here and this whole Dean romance :D_

What's your favourite story so far and why?

_Personally I was having a re-read of Faith today and chuckling at the whole line _"You know, you and me, we need to have a serious talk when this is all over, start facing reality." He whispered fiercely at me. "You gotta get a grip!"_ I can totally see these two having this little argument, finishing with Dean's "Whatever!" and Sam snorting as he watches on amused._

* * *

_I have been trying to sort out the timeline, I tend to see these stories as being further apart than they are according to the Canon timeline. So I need to go back and just do a few edits where I've screwed up the dates (ie. It's not 9 months between Woman in White & Scarecrow – it's 6 months – which was in the DVD, I just changed it to seem like more time had passed, but now it's not quite right, so I'm going to go back to the 6 months. It's minor but that's what's happening :D _


	17. Something Wicked

_And now I try hard to make it__  
__I just wanna make you proud__  
__I'm never gonna be good enough for you__  
__I can't stand another fight__  
__And nothing's alright__'  
Cause we lost it all__  
__Nothing lasts forever__  
__I'm sorry  
I can't be perfect  
__Now it's just too late and__  
__We can't go back  
__I'm sorry  
__I can't be perfect__  
_

* * *

**SOMETHING WICKED**

* * *

_**Beth's POV  
**_**Impala – Present Day**_**  
**_

Dean and Sam were arguing, again, seemed to be happening a lot lately, I had to remind myself that this was quite normal for them, but it was still a little disheartening.

"Yeah. You probably missed something, that's what." Dean said frowning at Sam who was sitting next to him in the front.

"Dude, I ran LexisNexis, local police reports, newspapers... I couldn't find a single red flag. Are you sure you got the coordinates right?" Sam said frustrated.

"Yeah. I double checked. It's Fitchburg, Wisconsin." I said from the back seat, wishing I could avoid the discussion altogether. I wanted to avoid the state altogether, nothing good happened in Wisconsin, it was god damned nightmare as far as I was concerned.

"Dad wouldn't have sent us coordinates if it wasn't important Sammy." Dean said, looking at his brother resolutely.

Sam sighed angrily. "Well, I'm telling you, I looked and all I could find was a big steamy pile of nothing. If Dad's sending us hunting for something, I don't know what." He threw his hands in the air in a futile gesture expressing his frustration.

"Well maybe he's going to meet us there." I said, hopeful.

"Yeah. Cause he's been so easy to find up to this point." Sam said grumpily.

"You're a real smart ass you know that?" Dean said, jumping to my defence. Sam flashed him a glare. Dean turned his eyes back to the road and kept driving. "Don't worry, I'm sure there's something in Fitchburg worth killing." He declared.

"Yeah? What makes you so sure?" Sam asked hotly.

Dean grinned and looked at Sam. "Because I'm the oldest, which means I'm always right." I snorted and Sam threw him another glare.

"No it doesn't." Sam argued.

"It totally does." Dean asserted, winking at me in the rearview mirror.

Sam turned to look out the window with a sigh and Dean grinned, looking back at the road. I looked out the window just in time to see the sign indicating we had arrived in Fitchburg... population 20,501.

First stop was the diner – Glasow's Lunch, to be exact, I was dying for a caffeine hit. I took the three take-away coffees from the counter after paying and walked outside into the sunny day. Dean and Sam were across the road, leaning on the Impala, staring at the playground in front of them.

I crossed the road and handed the coffees off to the guys, sidling up to Dean and leaning against the car.

"Well... the waitress thinks the local freemasons are up to something sneaky, but other than that no one's heard about anything freaky going on." I reported to them.

Sam was frowning as he watched a kid playing on the swings nearby.

"Dean, you got the time?" He asked, looking at his brother. Dean glanced at his watch.

"Ten after four. Why?" He asked.

Sam nodded at the playground. "What's wrong with this picture?" We all looked, there was still only one kid on the playground.

"School's out isn't it?" I asked, looking around.

"Yeah." Sam said, staring at the playground. He looked quiet and reserved, contemplating something.

"So where is everybody? This place should be crawling with kids right now." Sam said, instead it was like a wasteland - empty swings moved in the breeze, and leaves blew across the ground almost like tumble weed.

Dean stood up, looking over at a woman on the park bench and wandered over. I followed at a leisurely pace.

"Sure is quiet out here." Dean said to her as he got to the bench.

"Yeah, it's a shame." The woman said, looking up at him.

"Why's that?" Dean asked, he smiled and put his arm around me as I reached them.

"You know, kids getting sick, it's a terrible thing." The woman answered.

"How many?" I asked, looking at her.

"Just five or six, but serious, hospital serious." She said, I felt Dean stiffen next to me. "A lot of parents are getting pretty anxious. They think it's catching."

We all looked over at the little girl playing by herself and contemplated. Maybe there was something here to look into after all.

* * *

**_Beth's POV  
_****Dane County Memorial Hospital – Present Day****_  
_**

I adjusted my jacket and smoothed out the skirt I was wearing. The boys were dressed in suits in front of me, Dean in navy blue, pale blue shirt with a maroon tie, and Sam in grey with a brown tie and blue shirt. That wasn't the reason I was staring at them in disbelief.

"Dean, I am _not _using this ID!" I said, frowning.

"Why not?" Dean asked, looking at me in amusement.

"Because it says _bikini inspector _on it!" I stated, rolling my eyes.

Dean grinned at me and turned me to face the reception. "Don't worry, she won't look that close all right? Hell, she won't even ask to see it. It's all about confidence Beth... besides you have an honest face." He said, pushing me down the corridor as they went to stand against the wall a few yards behind me.

I sighed and walked toward the desk, the receptionist looked up as I reached her.

"Hi. I'm Doctor Jerri Caplin, for disease control." I said with a smile.

"Can I see some ID?" She asked and I heard Dean snigger down the hallway.

"Yeah, of course." I said, throwing Dean a dirty look as I pulled out the fake ID. I flashed it really quickly at her, holding it back a little so she wouldn't get a very good look. "Now could you direct me to the paediatrics ward please?" I said, giving her my no-nonsense look.

"OK well, just go down that hall, turn left and up the stairs." She said with disinterest, pointing down the hall past Dean and Sam.

I turned and walked back to the boys. Dean was grinning at me, pleased with himself. "See. I told you it would work."

I smacked him in the arm but he was still grinning. I rolled my eyes. "Follow me, it's upstairs." I said, leading the way.

We were all silent, eyes alert as we walked down the corridor toward paediatrics. Dean hesitated in front of a room we were passing, I peeked inside quickly, it had a little old lady in a wheelchair, staring out the window. I shrugged and raised an eyebrow at Dean, not sure what had caught his attention. He was staring at something though.

"Guys!" Sam muttered to us, and we looked over, he was gesturing with his head for us to keep moving. I shrugged and kept walking, Dean followed, but I noticed him glance back at the room, deep in thought.

We reached paediatrics, and were introduced to a doctor who seemed to be in charge of the area. Dean took the lead, stepping forward to talk to him.

"Thanks for seeing us Dr. Heidecker." Dean said.

"Well, I'm glad you guys are here, I was just about to call CDC myself." He said, walking ahead of us, leading us through a waiting room. His pager sounded and he looked down to read the message. "How'd you find out anyways?" He asked absently, looking back up at us.

"Oh some GP, I forget his name, he called Atlanta and must have beat you to the punch." I supplied, smiling at him.

"So you say you have six cases so far?" Dean asked, looking at him.

"Yeah, five weeks." Heidecker said, turning to look at us, stopping in front of a containment area glassed in. Children lay comatose in their beds, looking pale and sickly, big circles under their eyes.

"At first we thought it was garden variety bacterial pneumonia. Not that newsworthy. And now..." His voiced trailed off as he looked over at the children.

"Now what?" Sam asked, standing by the window looking in at the kids.

"Kids aren't responding to antibiotics. Their white cell counts keep going down. Their immune systems aren't doing their job. It's like their bodies are wearing out." Heidecker said.

A nurse came up to us and looked at the doctor. "Excuse me Dr Heidecker." She handed some forms to him.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" I asked.

"Never this severe." He said.

"And the way it spreads... that's a new one for me," the nurse chimed in.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"It works its way through families. But only the children, one sibling after another." I looked at Dean, he swallowed hard, and looked over at the kids.

"You mind if we interview a few of the kids?" He asked.

"They're not conscious." She informed us, and Dean looked surprised.

"None of them?" Sam asked, casting a gaze over the children with a small frown.

"No." She replied. What matter of pneumonia knocked a half a dozen kids out and left them comatose? I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach as I followed Sam's gaze.

"Can we talk to the parents then?" I asked, looking at the doctor.

"If you think it would help." Heidecker said to us, nodding.

"Yeah." Dean said in agreement. "Who was your most recent admission?"

* * *

_**Dean's POV**_

**Hospital Waiting Room – Present Day**

Something about this case was really starting to sit badly in my stomach. Beth had gone over to introduce herself to the father of the latest addition and I stood nearby talking with Sam.

"Something just doesn't feel right about this one Sammy." I muttered, looking over at the father. Beth looked back at me and nodded. I moved toward them, leaving Sam to think over what I'd just said.

"We really appreciate you talking to us." Beth was saying. "Now, you say Mary is the oldest?" She asked.

"Thirteen." The man said, looking at her.

"And she came down with it first right?" I asked, "And then..."

"Brittany, the next night." He answered, looking sad.

"Within 24 hours?" Beth asked.

"I guess." He shrugged. "Look I already went through this with the doctor." He was getting frustrated, couldn't say that I blamed him.

"Just a few more questions if you don't mind." I said, and he sighed. "How do you think they caught pneumonia? Were they out in the cold, anything like that?" I asked.

"No." He answered, shaking his head. "We think it was an open window."

"Both times?" Beth asked, glancing up from her notes.

"The first time I don't really remember, but the second time for sure." He frowned, thinking it over. "I know I closed it before I put Brittany to bed." He said.

"So you think she opened it?" Beth asked gently.

"It's a second storey window with a ledge. No one else could have." He supplied and I frowned, this case was starting to sound worse by the minute.

We excused ourselves and started walking back to the car.

"You know this might not be anything supernatural, it might just be pneumonia." Sam was saying as we passed door after door, heading for the exit.

I thought about it, he could be right, but it just didn't feel right. "Maybe." I said. "Or maybe something opened that window. I don't know man, Dad sent us down here for a reason. I think we may be barking up the right tree."

Beth had been quiet, but now she spoke softly. "I'll tell you one thing," she said.

"What?" Sam asked.

"That guy we just talked to? I bet it will be a while before he goes home." She looked up at me, and I smiled. She was right, as usual.

* * *

_**Dean's POV**_

**Brittany's Bedroom – Present Day**

We'd picked the lock and shown ourselves inside. Sam had the EMF meter out and was sweeping the room, Beth and I looked around for any thing out of the ordinary.

"You got anything over there?" I asked Sam. He shook his head, looking at the EMF.

"No, nothing." He said.

"Yeah, me neither." I muttered, looking around. Beth was squatting by the window sill, I saw a frown cross her face and moved to meet her.

"Hey," she said, as I walked up to her.

"Hey." I answered. She stood up and looked at me, worry in her eyes.

"You were right, it's not pneumonia," she said. I looked at where she was pointing, on the windowsill was a hand print rotted into the wood. I swallowed hard, I couldn't believe what I was looking at.

Sam was standing behind us now, looking over our shoulders. "It's rotted. What the hell leaves a hand print like that?" He asked.

I felt myself slipping into an old memory, one I'd buried a long time ago.

_**Motel Room  
17 years ago**_

_I was staring at a photo Dad had put on the bed, it was of a hand print, rotted into the windowsill of someone's house._

_Dad came out of the bathroom loading his sawed off shotgun, and I dropped the photo on to the bed, stepping away from his things._

"_All right. You know the drill Dean. Anybody calls, you don't pick up. It's me, I'll ring once then call back. You got that?" I nodded, I knew the drill all right, it was the same old thing every time. Dad looked at me expectantly._

"_Mm-hmm. Only answer if the phone rings once first." I repeated back to him, rolling my eyes._

"_Come on dude, look alive, this stuff is important." Dad said to me._

"_I know, it's just... we've gone over it like a million times and you know I'm not stupid." I said to him, sighing._

_Dad was gathering his things up and putting them in a bag. He turned to look at me. "I know you're not, but it only takes one mistake, you got that?" He said to me. I nodded. He looked at me for a moment and then turned back to put the rest of his things in his bag._

"_All right, if I'm not back Sunday night...?" He asked, quizzing me._

"_Call Pastor Jim." I answered. Dad nodded and turned back to me. _

"_Lock the doors, the windows, close the shades." He pointed to me, looking me in the eyes. "Most important..." _

"_Watch out for Sammy." I said, and we both looked over at Sammy who was watching TV, a bored look on his face, completely unaware of what we were talking about. _

"_I know." I sighed, looking at Dad. _

_Dad nodded. "All right. If someone tries to bust in?" _

"_Shoot first, ask questions later." I said, repeating back the instructions I'd heard a million times. Dad smiled at me and I felt a little glimmer of happiness. I liked to make him happy._

_"That's my man." He said with a smile, patting me on the shoulder._

**_Brittany's Room  
Present Day_**

Someone was tapping me on the shoulder and I startled, still staring at the hand print embedded into the windowsill.

"Hey, you ok?" Beth asked me, concern in her eyes. I sighed and threw her a smile, it always got me one in return.

"Yeah, yeah." I said, running a hand across my face. "I know why Dad sent us here." She looked surprised and glanced over at Sam. I turned to look at Sammy too, he was gazing curiously at me.

"He's faced this thing before. He wants us to finish the job." I said, looking down at the windowsill again. This time, I wouldn't fail.

* * *

**_Dean's POV  
_****Motel – Present Day****_  
_**

Beth was driving. She pulled the Impala up to the motel office and we sat for a moment, Sam was belting out a string of questions that I really didn't feel like answering right then and there, but I had to.

"So what the hell is a shtriga?" Sam asked, leaning forward to the front seat.

"Kind of like a witch, I think. I don't know much about them." I answered , looking out the window.

"Well I've never heard of it. And it's not in Dad's journal." Sam said, he was clearly confused as to why that was.

"Dad hunted one in Fort Douglas, Wisconsin, about 16-17 years ago. You were there, don't you remember?" I asked, glancing at him.

"No!" Sam said, frowning.

I shrugged and played it cool. "Guess he caught wind the thing's in Fitchburg now and kicked us the coordinates." I said.

"So wait, this..." Sam struggled for the word.

"Shtriga." I filled him in.

"Right. You think it's the same one Dad hunted before?" Sam asked, looking confused.

"Yeah, maybe." I said quietly, looking down.

"But if Dad went after it, how come it's still breathing air?" Sam questioned, glancing at both me and Beth.

"Because it got away." I said, sighing.

"Got away?" Beth asked, looking curious.

I was starting to feel really uncomfortable with all these damn questions, why couldn't they just take everything I said at face value and move on? It wasn't that hard, I'd been doing it for years with Dad. Beth wasn't so bad, she'd learned to listen to Dad, but Sammy... he was like a pit bull with a bone, and wouldn't let anything go.

"Yeah, it happens all right?" I said, frustrated.

"Not very often." Sam scoffed.

"Well I don't know what to tell ya Sam, maybe Dad didn't have his wheaties that morning." I said, getting out of the car. Sam stuck his head out the window.

"What else do you remember?" He asked.

"Nothing!" I said defensively, backing away. "I was a kid all right?!"

Sam shook his head and said something to Beth, complaining no doubt. I shrugged and headed into the office to get us a room. Bloody Sam, he just needed to leave it alone for a bit until I could get my head on straight.

I rang the bell and a kid about 12 years old came to the desk. I shook my head at the kid's long shaggy hair cut, he looked like a Beatle gone wrong. What the hell was up with fashion these days? I ran my hand through my own hair, taking a second to glance at my reflection in the mirror on the wall. Thank God Beth didn't like the shaggy look, it would be seriously damaging to my image.

"A king or two queens?" He asked, looking up at me.

I glanced back at the car where Sam was now pacing outside the Impala, blocking the view of Beth in the car.

"Two queens." I said, turning back to the kid.

"Yeah, I'll bet." He said under his breath, sniggering when he saw Sam.

I leaned in to him. "What'd you say?" I asked giving him my stare.

The boy smiled at me. "Nice car!" I shook my head at him, smiling a bit. Funny kid.

A woman entered behind me in a hurry, she smiled when she saw me at the desk. "Hi," she greeted me.

"Hey." I nodded at her.

"Checking in?" She asked. I nodded.

"Yeah." I said.

She turned to the boy and looked at him. "Ahh, do me a favour, go get your brother some dinner."

"I'm helping a guest!" The boy said to her. She gave him a look like Dad used to give me, and he caved, turning to go. As she came around the desk, the kid stopped to look back at his mother. "Two queens." He informed her with a raised eyebrow.

I forced a laugh, rolling my eyes. "Funny kid."

"Oh yeah, he thinks so." She said. "Will that be cash or credit?"

"Do you take MasterCard?" I asked, and she nodded. "Perfect," I pulled my latest card out of my wallet and handed it to her. "Here you go."

The door into the living area behind the office was open, and I watched as the boy from the desk fussed over his younger brother at the kitchen table, pouring him a glass of milk.

_**17 years ago – Motel Room**_

_Sam was sitting at the table while I finished cooking him dinner. I poured him a glass of milk and set it in front of him. He turned his puppy dog eyes to me and asked the same question he'd been bugging me with for the last three hours._

"_When's Dad going to get back?" _

"_Tomorrow." I said, grabbing the pot from the stove._

_"When?" Sam asked, again for the third time._

"_I dunno," I said, pouring the spaghetti-ohs into the bowl in front of Sammy. "He usually comes in late though. Now eat your dinner." _

"_I'm sick of scabetti-ohs." Sam said to me and I frowned. _

"_Well you're the one who wanted them!" I scowled at him._

"_I want Lucky Charms!" Sam said. I sighed. I'd been hoping to polish off the last of the box myself._

"_There's no more Lucky Charms." I said to him._

"_I saw the box!" He said, pointing to the cupboard._

"_OK. Maybe there is, but there's only enough for one bowl and I haven't had any yet." I said, trying to get him to see sense._

_Sammy stared at me, all sad. I rolled my eyes. Why did I always give in to the kid? I turned and grabbed the box of cereal out of the cupboard, putting it in front of the little guy along with a clean bowl. Sammy reached in and grabbed the toy. _

"_Want the prize?" He asked, holding the prize out to me. I shook my head at him and smiled. _

"_Nah, you have it." I said. He beamed at me. Oh, yeah, that was why._

"_Thanks!" He smiled at me. _

_**Motel Office – Present Day**_

"Thanks." The woman said to me, handing back the credit card, it startled me out of my thoughts. I shook my head, staring at the kids in the background for just a second longer, then put the card back in my wallet, signed the credit card receipt and took the key she was now holding out for me.

"Thanks." I said with a nod, and I turned back to the car where Sam and Beth were waiting patiently for me.

* * *

_**Beth's POV  
**_**Motel Room – Present Day**_**  
**_

I was sitting on our bed in the room, looking at the laptop which was on my knees and some of the information I'd managed to pull from on-line.

"Well you were right. It wasn't very easy to find but you were right. Shtriga is a kind of witch." I frowned, looking at the information. Dean was making us some coffee and glanced over at me. "They're Albanian," I continued. "But legends about them trace back to ancient Rome. They feed of _spiritus vitae." _

"Spiri-what?" Dean asked with a frown, coming over to put my coffee down on the table next to the bed.

"Vitae." I said. "It's Latin, translates to 'breath of life'. Kind of like your life force or essence."

"Didn't the doctor say the kids' bodies were wearing out?" Dean said, sitting on the edge of the bed next to me.

"It's a thought," Sam said. "You know, she takes your vitality, maybe your immunity goes to hell and pneumonia takes hold?"

I nodded. "Well, says here shtrigas can feed off anyone, but they prefer..."

"Children." Dean said, finishing my sentence. He sounded weary and I glanced up at him. There was a look in his eyes, almost haunted and I stared at him a moment, puzzled. Something was definitely bothering him, had been for the last few hours. I made a mental note to get him alone later to have a little chat.

"Yeah." I responded. "Probably because they have a stronger life force." I looked down at the information again. "And get this, shtrigas are 'invulnerable to all weapons devised by God and man.'" I quoted.

Dean shook his head. "No, that's not right." He said, standing up and starting to unzip his duffel bag which was at the end of the bed. "She's vulnerable when she feeds."

"What?" Sam asked, looking up sharply from the other bed.

Dean looked over at him and pulled his own journal out of his bag. "If you catch her when she's eating you can blast her with a consecrated wrought iron. Ahh... buckshots or rounds I think." He said, moving over to the bench near the sink.

"How do you know that?" Sam asked, curious.

"Dad told me. I remember." Dean said nonchalantly, starting to flip through his journal. He wasn't lying, but there was something more to that statement too, I mused over what it might be.

"Oh. So uh, anything else Dad might have mentioned?" Sam asked.

"Nope. That's it." Dean said with a shrug, starting to write in the journal. Sam continued to stare at Dean, clearly not convinced either. Dean shifted uncomfortably under the attention from his brother.

"What?" He asked defensively.

"Nothing." Sam replied, looking away, puzzled.

I cleared my throat and tried to get us back on track. "OK. So assuming we can kill it when it eats, we have to find the thing first." I said, glancing up at them. "It's not going to be a cake walk. They can take on a human disguise when they're not hunting."

"What kind of human disguise?" Dean asked, looking at me.

"Well, historically speaking it would be something innocuous. Could be anything, but it's usually a feeble old woman, which might be how the witches as old crones legend got started." I informed them.

Dean stood up suddenly and crossed the room.

"Hang on." He said, grabbing a map and spreading it on the table. "Check this out. I marked down all the addresses of the victims. Now these are the houses that have been hit so far, and dead centre?" Sam was with him, looking it over.

"The hospital." Sam said. I put the laptop aside and went to join them, looking at the map.

"Yeah." Dean said. "Now when I was there, I saw a patient, an old woman."

"An old person huh?" Sam said, scoffing.

"Yeah." Dean said, serious, staring at Sam's smirking face.

"In a hospital?" Sam sniggered. "Phew! Better call the coast guard!"

I shook my head and bit my lip so as not to laugh, Dean was wound up enough as it was without adding gas to the fire.

"Well listen smart ass," Dean said, deadpan. "She had an inverted cross hanging on her wall." This got our attention. I looked up at him.

"That's what you were looking at." I said, referring to the room he'd paused at when we'd been in the hospital – the old lady in the wheelchair. He looked me in the eye and nodded.

* * *

**_Beth's POV  
_****Hospital – Present Day****_  
_**

The three of us walked casually down the hallway of the hospital toward the paediatrics wing where we'd seen the old lady. Dr Heidecker came out into the hallway at one point, and we ducked into another corridor, waiting him out.

"Good night Dr Heidecker," a nurse said.

"See you tomorrow Betty." The doctor said, walking past us, not looking in our direction.

"Try to get some sleep," she reprimanded the doctor, who had obviously been doing too much overtime while he tried to work out what to do about the condition of the children under his care.

We stayed hidden until the doctor was out of sight and then continued on to the old lady's room. Sam lost the rock, paper, scissors fight and was designated scout, leaning up against the wall, sulking a little.

Dean and I slipped into the room, guns drawn. The woman was in her wheelchair facing away from us toward a corner, she seemed to be asleep. I shrugged at how anyone could sleep sitting up like that, and Dean moved in closer and closer to look her in the face.

Suddenly the old woman jerked her face toward him. "Who the hell are you!" She said loudly and Dean panicked, leaping back and hitting the wall, almost dropping his gun. I startled, raising my own gun up to the ceiling.

"Who's there?" The old lady called out, looking scared. I flipped on the lights. "You trying to steal my stuff?" The old lady accused. "They're always stealing around here."

"Ah, no ma'am. We're maintenance." I said, looking into the milky white eyes of a person suffering cataracts. Dean threw me a freaked out look, leaning up against the wall and putting his hand over his face, getting a hold of himself. "We're sorry. We thought you were sleeping." I added.

"Ahhh nonsense! I was sleeping with my peepers open." She laughed. Dean looked at me with a shake of his head tucking his gun back in the waistband of his pants. The woman looked in his direction. "Fix that crucifix would ya? I've asked four damn times already!" She said, gesturing to the wall.

Dean turned to look at the upside-down cross on the wall, he reached out and tapped it, and it swung right side up. I grimaced and Dean turned to give me an apprehensive look.

* * *

_**Beth's POV**_**  
Motel – Present Day**

Fifteen minutes later we were pulling up to the motel filling Sam in on what had happened in the room.

Sam was almost peeing himself laughing at our story. "I was sleeping with my peepers open?" He burst into laughter again at the retelling of that.

"I almost smoked that old girl, I swear! It's not funny!" Dean scolded, looked as if he was kicking himself.

Sam couldn't help himself and kept snickering. I was laughing myself and looked at Dean with a grin. "Oh man, you should have seen your face Dean." I laughed, picturing it.

"Yeah, laugh it off sugarpie. Now we're back to square one." Dean grumbled, his eyes falling to a boy sitting on a bench by the office.

"Hang on." He said, and walked over. Sam went into our room still chuckling to himself, I followed Dean over to where the boy was sitting.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Dean asked, crouching down by the boy.

The boy turned watery eyes to Dean and sniffed. "My brother's sick."

"The little guy?" Dean asked.

The boy nodded. "Pneumonia. He's in the hospital. It's my fault." He said. Dean frowned, concern passing across his face.

"Oh c'mon, how?" He asked, leaning in to the boy.

"I shoulda made sure the window was latched. He wouldn't have got pneumonia if the window was latched." Dean looked over at me, his jaw clenched and anger rising in his eyes, before he turned back to the boy.

"Listen to me. I promise you that this is not your fault. OK?" He said, looking at the boy with an open and honest face, I could see the fragility there, just below the surface. It always was when it came to kids having to look after their siblings.

"It's my job to look after him." The boy sniffed.

His mother hurried out of the motel toward her car carrying pillows, a blanket and a teddy bear, she looked flustered and jittery. She glanced over at her son.

"Michael, I want you to turn on the no vacancy sign while I'm gone. I've got Denise covering room service." She said to him as she put her things in the car.

"I'm going with you." Michael replied, getting up and walking to the car.

"Not now Michael." His mother answered, giving him a stern look.

"But I gotta see Asher!" The boy said, upset.

"Hey, Michael. Hey I know how you feel, but you gotta go easy on your Mom right now ok?" Dean said gently to the kid.

The woman dropped her handbag in her haste to unlock the car and I bent down to pick it up for her. "I got it." I said.

"Thank you." She said to me with a smile.

"Hey listen you're in no condition to drive, why don't you let Dean give you a lift to the hospital." I said as she took the bag from me.

"No, I couldn't possibly..." She started to say.

"No, it's no trouble." Dean said, nodding to me. "I insist." He took her keys and she threw him a look of gratitude.

"Thanks," she said to us with a smile. She looked at Michael. "Be good."

Dean helped her into the passenger seat of her car and turned to face me. I ran a hand along his face at the conflicted look in his eyes.

"We're going to kill this thing. I want it dead Beth, you hear me?" He was upset, looking over at Michael then back at me.

"Yeah, we will Dean. We'll find it, I promise. Be careful, all right?" I said, and he nodded at the unspoken warning – that thing could be anywhere.

* * *

**Dean's POV  
**_**Hospital – Present Day**_**  
**

Nothing untoward had happened while I'd been at the hospital, my phone started to vibrate. I looked down at the screen and smiled, _Beth. _

"Hey," I whispered, walking out of the room into the hall.

"_Hey,"_ she said. _"How's the kid?" _

"He's not good. Where are you?" I asked, looking back at Asher in the bed, his mother keeping close vigil.

"_I'm at the library with Sam. We've been trying to find out as much as we can about this Shtriga." _She sounded tired, and frustrated.

"Yeah? What have you got?" I asked.

"_Well, bad news. I started with Fort Douglas around the time you said Dad was there?" _She said.

"Yeah?" I frowned, wondering where she was going with it.

"_Same thing. Before that there was Ogdenville, before that North Haverbrook and Brockway. Every 15 to 20 years it hits a new town." _I closed my eyes, rubbing a hand across my face, trying not to feel the failure that was coming up inside of me. I sighed, and listened as she went on.

"_Dean, this thing is just getting started in Fitzburg. In all these other places it goes on for months. Dozens of kids before the shtriga finally moves on. The kids languish in comas and then they just die." _She sighed at the end, soft and worried. I glanced over at Asher and his mother, frowning.

"How far back does this thing actually go?" I asked.

"_We don't know. The earliest mention we can find is a place called Black River Falls in the 1890s. Talk about horror show... whoa!" _She finished the sentence with a surprised sound.

"What?!" I asked. "Beth?"

"_Hang on. Sam's bringing up a photograph..." _There was a pause and then she spoke again. "_I'm looking at a photograph right now of a bunch of doctors standing around a kid's bed. One of the doctors is Heidecker!" _

"And?" I didn't get the point.

"_Dean, this picture was taken in 1893." _I closed my eyes, finally a lead.

"Are you sure?" I asked. We had to be right.

"_Yeah, yeah absolutely." _Came the reply.

"OK. I'll see you soon." I said and hung up.

Heidecker was sitting at the end of Asher's bed, stroking the kid's head. It was all I could do to not go in and empty my gun into his head, right then and there. Except I realised I wasn't carrying my gun, I'd left it at the motel. I thought about finding a knife and slitting his throat, but again, it wasn't going to do any good.

The good doc looked up at me and saw me staring. He shifted, maybe a little uncomfortably and walked over to me.

"So, what's the CDC come up with so far?" He asked, looking at me casually.

"We're still working on a few theories. You'll know something as soon as we do." I said, looking him in the eyes. I wanted to see into the soul of this son of a bitch before I killed him. There wasn't anything remarkable looking back at me.

"Well, nothing's more important to me than these kids. Let me know if I can help." He said. I smirked, _yeah I bet, _I thought. I nodded.

"I'll do that." I answered, and he walked away.

It was time to go back to the motel, we had to come up with a plan to kill this bastard before he hurt anyone else.

* * *

_**Dean's POV**_**  
Motel Room – Present Day**

"We should have thought of this before. A doctor's a perfect disguise. You're trusted, you can control the whole thing!" Sam was pacing the room, looking frustrated. I took a moment to wonder what the hell was he wearing, some purple t-shirt with a ... what? Hyena on it? Who the hell dressed this fool? But I had to concentrate, bring my attention back to the job.

I shrugged out of my jacket and tossed it on the chair. "That son of a bitch!" I said, walking into the bathroom and running the cold water tap. Beth came to stand in the doorway, looking in at me, worried.

"I'm surprised you didn't draw on him right then." She said with a quirky little smile. I wet a cloth and put it at the back of my neck, god I was tense! I turned to her and looked at her.

"Yeah, well, first of all, I'm not going to open fire in a paediatrics ward." I said, she smiled at me and took the cloth from my hand, holding it to the back of my neck.

"Good call," she agreed.

"Second, it wouldn't have done any good. The bastard is bulletproof unless he's chowing down on something." She nodded at me and I took a moment to stare into those big pools of chocolate, looking for that little twinkle in her eye.

"That's more like you." She grinned. I sighed, and leaned back against her hand on the back of my neck.

"And third, I wasn't packing! Which is probably a good thing because I probably would have burned a clip in him on principal alone." That earned me a chuckle and Sam was laughing in the other room, listening to the conversation.

"You're getting wise in your old age Dean!" Sam called from the other room. I looked out the door at him, pulling away from Beth and walking to the door.

"Damn right. Because now I know how we're going to get it." I announced, looking first at Sam who raised an eyebrow, and then back at Beth who was looking troubled.

"What do you mean?" Beth asked.

"Shtriga, works through siblings right?" I asked, looking from her to Sam.

"Right." Sam confirmed.

"Well last night..." I trailed off.

"It went after Asher," she finished for me.

I nodded. "So I'm thinking tonight it's probably going to come after Michael."

Sam sat up straight on the bed he'd been lounging on. "Well we gotta get him out of here." He said.

"No, no, that would blow the whole deal." I said, looking at Sam. He wasn't going to like this, not one bit, but it was the only way. I looked at Beth and she was frowning, but I could see she was coming to the same conclusion I had. This was our only way, and I wanted that son of a bitch dead, tonight.

"What?" Sam said, frowning.

"You want to use the kid as bait." Beth said, stepping into the room, arms crossed.

"Are you nuts?!" Sam said. "No! Forget it. That's out of the question."

I sighed and looked at him.

"It's not out of the question." I said in my best authoritarian tone. "Sam it's the only way. If this thing disappears it could be years before we get another chance." And I wasn't going to let that happen.

Sam shook his head. "Michael's a kid. I'm not going to dangle him in front of that thing like a worm on a hook."

"Dad did not send me here to walk away!" I said forcefully.

"Send you here? He didn't send you here, he sent us!" Sam said looking at me, irritated.

I felt the old shame rising inside of me and fought it down. This was all my fault, we wouldn't be here, these kids wouldn't be languishing in some sterile hospital room if I hadn't failed Dad.

"This isn't about you Sam. I'm the one who screwed up, all right. It's my fault!" Beth frowned at me and moved to put a hand on my arm. I looked at her, she was staring at me not understanding. I'd never told her. I'd never told anyone. Neither had Dad.

"There's no telling how many kids have gotten hurt because of me." I muttered while looking at her. I was waiting for the disapproval, the rejection, the knowing to come into her eyes that I always waited for her to realise, that I was a complete and utter fuck up and always would be. It never came, and I was always a little relieved.

"Dean. What are you saying? How is this your fault?" She asked gently, eyes full of understanding.

I held my breath. I couldn't speak. I didn't even know where to start with this story.

"Dean," Sam said, sighing. "You've been hiding something from the get go. Since when does Dad bail on a hunt? Since when does he let something get away?" I glanced at him, struggling.

"Talk to us Dean. Tell us what's going on," Beth said, holding my arm.

I sighed. They'd never look at me the same after this. I looked at Sam, who was staring at me with those puppy dog eyes. His unwavering care for me really wasn't warranted, not after what I'd done. And Beth, well she was nuts if she thought the sun shone out of my ass. They wouldn't care about me once they heard this.

I sank on to the bed next to me, Beth sitting next to me, arm around my back in support.

Sighing, I started to tell them everything. "Fort Douglas, Wisconsin. It was our third night in this crap room and I was climbing the walls. I needed to get some air..."

* * *

_**Dean's POV  
**__**Motel Room – 17 years ago**__**  
**_

_I sighed. God the TV was boring, there was nothing to watch, half the stuff on there I'd seen a dozen times before. I turned off the TV and went to the front door. There was an arcade game at the front office, it'd be nice to get out just for a little bit. I glanced through the door into the bedroom and saw Sammy asleep in the bed. I debated. It'd be ok, just for a little bit._

_I locked the door, and headed to the arcade game. God it felt good just to be out of that cooped up little room, not having to listen to Sammy whine about when Dad was coming home. I forced down the worry that was sitting in my stomach, worry that was there every time Dad went on a hunt – wondering if maybe this time would be the time he never came back and I'd be left all alone, the only one to look after Sammy._

_The games helped distract me for a bit, and they were something to do other than stare at the TV all day. The owner of the motel came in to tell me they were closing up. It was time to go back to the motel room. _

_I opened the door to the room and saw a strange pale light coming from Sammy's room. I inched closer, and pushed open the door quietly. A hooded figure was over Sammy. I reached for the shotgun by the door, and cocked the barrel. The creature reared up at me with a snarl, still hovering over Sammy's body on the bed. I gulped, would I shoot Sam if I fired? _

_At that moment Dad came through the door, yelling at me. _

"_Get out of the way!" I ducked, and he shot at the creature, hitting it four or five times. It reared up and smashed through the window, glass going everywhere. Dad rushed to Sammy's side and grabbed him. _

"_Sammy. Sammy. You ok?" Dad asked him. _

"_Dad, __what's going on?" Sam said sleepily._

"_Are you all right?" Dad was holding him, he looked frightened._

"_What happened?" Dad asked accusingly, looking up at me. _

"_I just... I went out." I said._

"_What?!" Dad yelled._

"_Just for a second, I'm sorry." My heart was racing, I didn't want him to be mad at me, but I'd screwed up._

"_I told you not to leave this room. I told you not to let him out of your sight!" Dad yelled at me. I deserved it. I had failed him._

**_Dean's POV  
_****Motel Room – Present Day**

"Dad just grabbed us and booked. Dropped us off at Pastor Jim's about three hours away, but by the time he got back to Fort Douglas the shtriga had disappeared, it was just gone." I looked down at my hands, feeling all the old emotions coming up, Beth took one of my hands in hers and squeezed, I didn't want to look at her, I was afraid of what I'd see.

"It never surfaced until now. Dad never spoke about it again...and I didn't ask. But he... ah... he looked at me different, you know? Which was worse." I looked up at Sam, he was staring at me, open-mouthed. "Not that I blame him. He gave me an order and I didn't listen, I almost got you killed." I looked back down, letting out a deep sigh.

"You were just a kid." Beth said softly.

"Don't." I shook my head. "Don't. Dad knew this was unfinished business for me. He sent me here to finish it." I had no doubt about that, and that was exactly what I intended to do.

Sam nodded. "But using Michael, I don't know Dean. I mean, how about one of us hides under the covers, we be the bait." He said, trying to come up with a better plan.

"No it won't work." I said. "It's got to get close enough to feed. It'd see us. Believe me, I don't like it, but it's gotta be the kid." Beth sighed next to me, but she was nodding her agreement. She looked resigned to the plan. Sam was watching her, frowning, I knew he'd go along with it, it was two against one.

* * *

_**Beth's POV  
**__**Motel Reception– Present Day**__**  
**_

Michael was holding the phone up, waving it in the air, staring at Dean who was leaning on the reception counter.

"You're crazy! Go away before I call the cops." He said, looking at Dean like he was nuts.

"Hang on a second. Just listen to me. You have to believe me ok?" Michael hesitated, but nodded for Dean to continue.

"This thing came through the window and it attacked your brother. I've seen it. I know what it looks like." Dean glanced back at Sam, who was standing with me behind him. "Because it attacked my brother once too."

Michael slowly hung up the phone again. "This thing... is it... like … it has this long... black robe?" He asked uncertainly.

"You saw it last night, didn't you?" Dean asked.

The boy nodded. "I thought I was having a nightmare."

"I'd give anything not to tell you this but sometimes nightmares are real." Dean said, and I felt a sadness come into my heart, if only we could all go back to that innocence.

"So, why are you telling me?" Michael asked.

"Because we need your help." Dean said to him.

"My help?" The boy wasn't convinced.

"We can kill it. Me, and my brother and sister. It's what we do. But we can't do it without you." Dean told him. Sam and I nodded our agreement.

"What? No!" Michael said, frowning.

"Michael, listen to me. This thing hurt Asher. And it's going to keep hurting kids unless we stop it, understand me?" Dean said, a little strong, but maybe it would work.

* * *

_**Beth's POV  
**__**Motel Room – Present Day**__**  
**_

A few minutes we were back in our motel room, Michael had told us to leave. Dean was sitting on the bed and I climbed up to kneel behind him and rub his shoulders. He was so tense, I'd never felt him this worked up and anxious before. He was positively tied up in knots.

"Well that went crappy." Dean said with a sigh.

I chuckled. "Well what did you expect? You can't ask an adult to do something like that, much less a kid." I said, and he hung his head dejectedly.

There was a knock at the door and Sam went to answer it. He opened it up and Michael was standing there in the dim light.

He looked past Sam at Dean, who was sitting up a little straighter now.

"If you kill it, will Asher get better?" He asked, coming into the room. Sam closed the door.

Dean stood up to face Michael, crouching down to his level. "Honestly? We don't know."

Michael sighed. "You said you were a big brother?" Dean nodded.

"You'd take care of your little brother? You'd do anything for him?" Michael asked.

Dean smiled, looking at Sam. "Yeah I would." He said softly.

"Me too." Michael said, nodding. "I'll help." Dean nodded at him and gave him a pat on the shoulder, reassuring the kid. Then he looked up at Sam and nodded, it was time to get busy.

An hour later we were in Michael's room hooking up a security camera. I was watching Dean over the feed from the camera in the adjoining room, getting a great shot up his nose as he frowned and adjusted the angle.

Dean spoke to Michael. "This camera has night vision on it so we'll be able to see clear as day." He said, then he called out to me. "Are we good?"

"A hair to the right!" I called back, and Dean adjusted the camera. "Yeah, that's good!" I got up and walked around to the bedroom.

"What do I do?" Michael asked, looking hesitantly at Dean from his place in the bed. Dean moved to sit on the bed.

"Just stay under the covers." He instructed Michael. Michael took this in with a doubtful look.

"And if it shows up?" He asked.

"We'll be right in the next room. We're going to come in with guns. So as soon as we do you roll off this bed and crawl under it." Dean said, trying to reassure the boy.

"What if you shoot me?" He asked.

"We won't shoot you. We're really good shots." I said, and he smiled at me.

"We won't fire until you're clear ok?" Dean said and Michael nodded his understanding.

"Have you heard a gunshot before?" I asked, and he looked at me quizzically.

"Like in the movies?" He asked.

"It'll be a lot louder than in the movies." Dean said. "So I want you to stay under the bed, cover your ears, and _do not _come out until we say so. Understand?" I grinned, he was starting to sound like John, but no way in the world was I going to tell him that.

Michael nodded slowly, but he looked scared.

"Michael, are you sure you want to do this?" I asked, coming up behind Dean and resting a hand on his shoulder. The boy didn't answer for a long moment.

"You don't have to, it's ok, I won't be mad." Dean said finally.

"No, I'm ok." Michael said, nodding. "Just don't shoot me!" He said worried.

Dean looked at him, putting his hands on the boy's shoulders. "We're not going to let anything happen to you, I promise you." He said resolutely. I nodded, this we could all agree on.

* * *

_**Beth's POV  
**__**Room next to Michael's – Present**__**  
**_

We were in the adjoining room watching Michael trying to sleep in his bed. He was awake, no way you could sleep at a time like this. We'd been like this for hours. I stifled a yawn, and Dean looked up at me.

"What time is it?" He asked, looking a little worried.

"Almost 3." I said, looking at my watch, and he looked back down at the screen, his jaw twitching.

"Are you sure these iron rounds are going to work?" Sam asked from beside him, fiddling with his gun.

Dean nodded. "Consecrated iron rounds, and yeah, it's what Dad used last time." He said quietly.

"Hey Dean I'm sorry." Sam said, looking at his brother apologetically.

"For what?" Dean asked, puzzled.

Sam sighed. "You know, I've really given you... well, given you both, a lot of crap for always following Dad's orders. But I know why you do it." Sam said, looking up at me with a sad look in his eyes.

"Oh god kill me now." Dean muttered at the chick-flick moment from Sam, I stifled a laugh.

We all sat silently for a little while. Dean looked like he wanted to say something, but it just wasn't coming out. There wasn't much you could say to a statement like that. John had always stressed the rules, and we followed them as best we could. Sometimes mistakes happened, but it was usually always Dean who got the short end of the stick when they did. It was always Dean who felt like he failed in some way. John was always harder on him than he was me and Sam.

"Look." Dean said suddenly, pointing at the screen. He was pointing at the window, it had started to slide open. We picked up our guns, instantly alert. The Shtriga entered the room, sliding through the window like a mist. Michael was awake now, watching it, I just prayed he wouldn't panic at the last minute.

"Now?" Sam asked urgently.

"Not yet." Dean instructed staring at the screen. I went to stand by the door, waiting for Dean's signal.

The shtriga moved further into the room and leaned over the bed, Michael looked terrified, unable to move. Dean nodded and started moving. I opened the door and Dean rushed ahead of me, Sam and I were right behind him.

Dean threw open the door to Michael's room, and Sam yelled out to get the creature's attention, it reared back from Michael in surprise.

"Michael, down!" Dean yelled and the boy rolled off and under the bed. The three of us opened fire on the shtriga, shooting it multiple times.

The shtriga fell to the ground behind the bed.

"Mike you all right?" I asked.

"Yeah." He answered.

"Just sit tight." I said, walking around around the bed to check the shtriga. I approached it slowly, gun at the ready. There was no movement. I relaxed and glanced back at the boys, nodding.

Suddenly the shtriga rose and grabbed me by the throat, throwing me clear across the room against the wall. I hit hard, taking down a bookshelf with me.

"Beth!" I heard Dean yell, and then there was a struggle as the shtriga moved quickly, tossing Sam across the room on to the bed where it got on top of him and started to drain his life force.

"Hey!" I heard Dean shout and when the shtriga looked up, he aimed and shot the thing right between the eyes, which dropped the creature to the floor. I stumbled to my feet, moving unsteadily toward the boys, as Sam stood gasping for breath.

"You ok little brother?" Dean asked. Sam nodded, pulling himself to his feet. Dean put his arm around me as I reached them, checking me over to make sure I was ok. He clenched his jaw and looked at the creature still lying on the floor. Raising his gun, he fired at point blank range three more times. This time the shtriga disintegrated before our very eyes.

Michael peeked out from under the bed.

"It's ok Michael, you can come out now." I said to him with a smile, leaning in to Dean for support.

Michael came to stand with us and we all smiled. There was a relief in Dean's eyes as he looked at the boy.

* * *

**_Beth's POV  
_****Motel – Present Day****_  
_**

We were packing the Impala, getting ready to head out. Michael's mom walked up to us.

"Hey Joanna, how's Asher doing?" Dean asked.

"Have you seen Michael?" She asked, looking around.

"Mom! Mom!" Michael called out, running from inside. "How's Ash?"

She pulled her son into a big hug and smiled at him. "Got some good news. Your brother's going to be fine," she said.

We all exchanged happy looks at this wonderful news.

"Really?" Michael asked, grinning up at her.

"Yeah, really. No one can explain it, it's a miracle. They're going to keep him in overnight for observation and then he's coming home," Joanna said with a smile.

"That's great." Dean said, putting his arm around my waist and pulling me in to him.

"How are all the other kids doing?" Sam asked from next to us.

"Good. Real good. A bunch of them should be checking out in a few days. Dr Travis says the ward's going to be like a ghost town."

"Dr Travis? What about Dr Heidecker?" I asked.

"Oh he wasn't in today. Must have been sick or something," she said, as if only giving it some thought for the first time.

Joanna moved away with her son as they discussed going to visit Ash in the hospital. We all watched them get in the car with a feeling of relief and a job well done.

"It's too bad." Sam said quietly, watching them drive away.

"Oh they'll be fine." Dean said.

"That's not what I meant. I meant Michael. He'll always know there are things out there in the dark, he'll never be the same, you know?" We all thought about this without saying a word.

"Sometimes I wish that..." Sam trailed off.

"What?" I asked, looking over at him.

"I wish I could have that kind of innocence." Sam finished, looking at us.

Dean's arm tightened around me and he looked at me with a sadness before turning to Sam. "If it means anything, sometimes I wish you could too." He said quietly.

* * *

_**Dean's POV  
**__**Pastor Jim's House – 17 years ago**__**  
**_

_Dad was furious with me, he hadn't said a word to me the whole three hour drive to Minnesota, he just dumped me and Sammy with Pastor Jim and was gone, back to try and hunt the thing that had just tried to kill Sammy. I felt useless, empty, and a failure. _

_Pastor Jim was busy with another hunter who was staying with him for a few weeks, they were in the study discussing their business, I wasn't allowed to join them. I left Sammy watching TV and wandered around the house, eventually I came to the small chapel that was attached to Pastor Jim's house. I shrugged and decided this was as good a place to disappear for a while than anywhere._

_I walked into the chapel only to find I wasn't alone. There was a girl there, sitting in the front row in front of a huge angel statue. She was crying, and I hesitated, not sure if I should go in or not. But curiosity got the better of me, and I walked forward. She had chestnut brown hair that fell down to her waist, a little ribbon tied in her hair pulling it back out of her face. She didn't hear or see me as I came up, I was being quiet, I just wanted to watch her for a moment._

_She started to talk, up at the statue I think, and I realised she was saying a prayer._

"Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom his love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and to guard, to rule and guide."

_I frowned, what a load of nonsense, angels! Who did she think she was kidding? I'd never seen any such evidence that they existed, and I wasn't about to believe in them until I did._

_She sniffed and turned, spotting me standing a few yards away._

"_Hello." She said, looking at me. "What are you doing here?" _

_I shrugged, and walked a little closer. _

"_Just wanted somewhere to hide for a bit." I said, looking at her._

"_Are you a friend of Pastor Jim's?" She asked, her big brown eyes watching me. _

"_Yeah, he's a friend of my Dad's. Dad had to go away... on a trip, so he left us here." I could barely get the words out, I suddenly felt really worried about what Dad was going to say or do when he got back, if he came back._

"_My Dad is planning a trip with Pastor Jim now," she said to me, sniffing. "We're going away for a while." _

"_Why are you crying?" I asked, curious._

"_My Mom just died," she said sadly, and I felt for her._

_"My Mom is dead too." I said quietly, looking at my feet._

"_I'm sorry," she whispered, and I nodded. _

_I walked over to her and sat next to her on the seat. She was a little older than Sammy from what I could tell, but not as old as me. I looked up at the angel and nodded._

"_You were praying to angels?" I asked, already knowing the answer._

"_Yes. Every day." She said, turning her bright eyes to look at me. "Don't you?" _

_I shook my head. "Nah, don't believe in them." I said, still looking at the statue._

"_You should," she said to me, looking down at a little silver medallion in her hand._

"_Why?" I asked._

"_Because how can they protect you if you don't believe in them?" She asked me. I shrugged._

"_Do they talk to you?" I asked, "how do you know they're real?" _

"_They don't talk to me in the same way we talk. But I can feel them around me. Can't you?" I shook my head at this question._

_She fell silent next to me, looking at her medallion._

"_That's sad," she finally said, looking up at me. "Everyone needs a guardian angel, that's what my Mom always said."_

"_Do you have one?" I asked._

"_Of course, silly." She smiled, shaking her head at me._

"_I don't think I have one, only bad things happen to me." I said, looking at my hands and trying not to cry, I didn't want to think about Mom, Dad, Sammy or any of the bad things that I knew were out in the night._

"_Well, I'll share mine with you if you like," she said with a smile._

_I looked at her, not really sure. "You can do that?" I asked._

"_Sure, why not?" She asked, still smiling at me._

"_Well... ok... I guess." I said with a shrug. "Does your angel have a name?" _

"_Hmmm.. Thursday." She answered after a moment. _

"_Thursday? That's a silly name for an angel." I said looking at her, smiling. She was weird, this girl, but I liked her._

"_That's the day I was born on. My Mom has always said I have an angel of Thursday, so that's what I call mine." She answered. I nodded, good enough reason I suppose._

"_So how do we share him? Do we take it in turns or what?" I asked, genuinely curious about this new arrangement now._

"_I think an angel is big enough to take care of both of us!" She laughed. _

_I didn't care, I didn't believe a word she was saying anyway, I just didn't want to stop talking to her, she was the first person who had talked to me like a real person in a long time._

"_Well ok. It's a deal. We'll share your angel... thanks." I said, smiling at her. _

_She looked at me with a big smile and laughed happily. _

"_What's your name?" I asked her._

"_Ella." She said with another smile. "What's yours?"_

_A voice cleared in the back of the church and the man from Pastor Jim's office was standing there. Ella turned and flashed him a big smile._

_"Daddy!"_

"_Come on baby girl, it's time we went home, have you said your prayers?" He said with a smile and she nodded. "Come along then." _

_She turned back to me and slipped the little silver medallion into my hands with a smile. "This will remind you of our promise, don't forget!"_

_I laughed and nodded, looking at the little silver medallion in my hands._

"_I won't forget." I promised her, and surprisingly she kissed me, just on the cheek, flashing me a smile and then she was gone, running down the church aisle to where her dad was waiting. I glanced up at the angel and rolled my eyes, yeah right. But something stopped me from just tossing the medallion aside, I stuffed it in my pocket and felt a rumble in my stomach. Maybe Pastor Jim and I could get Sammy some dinner now he was finished with the other man._

_I left the chapel, feeling just a little better, for now._

* * *

_**Dean's POV  
Motel Room – Another Town – Present Day**_

I hadn't wanted to think about that week seventeen years ago, it had held only sadness and regret for me all these years. But now that it was over, now that I'd seen the job finished, I found my mind loitering on one more thing that I had kind of forgotten about from that time, until now.

Reaching out to open up the bedside table beside me, I pulled out my black leather journal and opened it, flipping through the pages. I wasn't looking for an entry, instead I came to the next blank page and fingered a little silver amulet tied to the ribbon that marked the page. It was tarnished and old, but you could still see the angel on it, and on the back was the inscription _My Guardian Angel. _I pulled it out and dangled it over my head as I lay back on the bed.

For the first time in seventeen years, I gave some real thought to when I'd gotten it. And then something hit me like a tonne of bricks. I sat up with a gasp, which earned a curious look from Sam, but I ignored it, pulling on my boots and heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" Sam asked frowning.

"Out, back soon." I said, closing the door.

I knew where she'd be, across the street in the little chapel we'd seen when we got there. I ran across the road, skipping in front of a couple of cars in my haste who tooted their horns at me. The doors were open, and there was an inviting light from within, I realised there were dozens of candles lit up in the chapel.

She was in the front row, kneeling and praying, like she always did. If we didn't have a chapel nearby, it would have just been outside with a candle she always carried in her bag – I stopped to think about that candle, I'd seen it a million times and never given it a second thought with it's angel on the side of it.

I walked up the aisle, advancing on her. She heard me, but she didn't turn around. She was finishing up a prayer.

"...ever this day be at my side, to light and to guard, to rule and guide."

I stopped, blinking. Surely, it couldn't be, I had to be mistaken.

"Ella." I whispered, and Beth turned to me, big brown eyes widening.

"Why did you call me that?" She asked.

"It's what your mom called you, isn't it?" I asked, moving forward to sit next to her. Beth stared at me in curiosity.

"Yes. How did you know...?" She stopped, blinking. "I haven't used that name since she died..."

I reached out and brushed a stray hair out of her face with a smile.

"Your Dad, he spent some time with Pastor Jim in Blue Earth, Minnesota. Didn't he?" She nodded at me, confused. "You went there, after your mom died?"

"Yes, yes, Dean, how do you know all this?" Beth asked, reaching out a hand to grab mine.

I looked down at her hand, a smile playing on my mouth. I couldn't believe it. It was beyond belief. But here she was.

"Dad took us to Blue Earth, after the shtriga attacked Sam. I met a girl there, and we talked about angels, and she gave me something." I lifted the medallion up and dangled it in between us.

Her eyes widened and she gasped, reaching out to take it, turning it over and over in her hands. She looked up, tears in her eyes.

"That was you?" She asked. I nodded and smiled as she laughed joyfully.

"I never knew your name." She said sadly.

"I never forgot yours." I said. She smiled, and crawled over into my lap, wrapping her arms around my neck. She planted kisses along my jaw, playing softly along my lips. I kissed her with a gentleness that I hadn't felt in a long time. She'd been there during one of my darkest times, and she'd been there when I finished it. I leaned my head against hers, our noses brushing as we just smiled at each other.

"Do you still pray to our angel?" I asked, looking into her eyes.

"Every day." She smiled. "Every day since that day, and always for the both of us."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

* * *

_I loved writing this one. I hope you enjoy it :) I hadn't planned the final part, it just sort of happened, especially when I looked at the timeline I've been working on and it just sort of … worked! Do we believe in destiny for these two yet? _

* * *

_Song for this chapter is Perfect by Simple Plan. Sad, melancholic, and very reminiscent of John and Dean's relationship. My heart just breaks for Dean in this episode, I can't imagine carrying that kind of burden around._

* * *

_As always, hello to the new followers, hope you're enjoying the story!_

_And thank you to all the people who take the time to leave a review, however long or short – I treasure each and every comment :D_

* * *

_I'm all talked out on the story I think. I can't even think of a question. So... instead, do you have a question for me? Haha I promise to answer them as best I can in the next update :D_

* * *

_P.S. Voiceless Angel – Yes Benders is one of my favourites too. I quite enjoy writing from Dean's perspective, even if it is a big of a challenge. I hope I didn't stuff up his 'voice' in this version!_

* * *

_Finally, a little shout-out to my beautiful niece Ella Faith who was born sleeping 6th June 2012. It's the reason I chose Ella for the name Beth's mum used to call her. RIP._

* * *

_Next up - Dean and Beth let their hair down and have a little fun - and Sam finds a bit of a romantic interest. _


	18. Provenance

_A hundred days have made me older__  
__Since the last time that I saw your pretty face__  
__A thousand lies have made me colder__  
__And I don't think I can look at this the same__But all the miles that separate__  
__Disappear now when I'm dreaming of your face__I'm here without you, baby__  
__But you're still on my lonely mind__  
__I think about you, baby__  
__And I dream about you all the time_

* * *

**PROVENANCE**

* * *

**Bar – New York State  
_Day 1_  
**

It wasn't often I got him up to dance, but when I did, he actually had some moves. Which was surprising given that I don't remember him ever acquiring any while we were growing up. Maybe it was just instinct.

Right now I was chatting up the DJ at the bar we were in, I was in the mood for some fun. I was wearing a sexy little halter top I'd found in the last town, it was red and matched my playful mood, I'd teamed it with tight-fitting black pants and matching red heels. Nelly Furtado had just released _Promiscuous _and while it wasn't the music we usually listened to, I found it fun and great to get my moves on to.

The DJ nodded at me, I finished up yet another one of my drinks for the night – I'd lost count how many, and turned to spy Dean at the bar, chatting up the bartender to get a few drinks on the house. As the strains of _Promiscuous _started to play I grinned at him and started to dance my way down the stage to the dance floor.

Dean watched with appreciation as I wove in among the other people dancing away, gyrating my hips to the funky beat, and waving him over. He refused, of course, shaking his head with a laugh and taking another drink of his beer. I rolled my eyes and raised my arms above my head, running my hands through my hair which was loose and falling down around my shoulders.

He swallowed and I laughed, spinning around to the music. A tall African-American guy moved in behind me, grabbing my hips in a drunken dance, and I giggled as we gyrated to the music, moving back and forth. Dean watched, amused, happy to let me have my fun. Until the second guy came up that was.

One guy, either side of me seemed to push him over the edge and he shook his head as I watched him, still dancing away. He shrugged out of his leather jacket, hanging it on the chair nearest him, revealing a simple blue button down shirt, it clung to him in all the right places and I eyed him off with a hunger that was taking me over.

He took another drink of his beer and fixed his gaze on me. I pulled away from the guys I'd been dancing with when I saw him making his way through the crowd to me. It was the chorus and he grabbed my hips, pulling me against him, singing to the song.

"_Promiscuous girl, you're teasin' me!" _I laughed and nodded. He leaned in to me with a grin, slowing our dance just a little so he could pull me close, grinding his body against mine as he moved behind me, sliding his hands around my waste, mouth coming in to trail a hot breath along my bare shoulders. I slid my arm up over my head and around his neck, holding him tightly to me, rocking into him to the beat, and he laughed, enjoying the closeness.

The next song was a little slower, and I was able to turn and wrap my arms around his neck, leaning in to nip at his neck and kiss my way up, seeking out his soft lips with a hunger that had been building for days. We kissed, moving to the music, and I lost myself in the moment, it was almost as if we we just two regular people, not a couple of messed up kids traipsing across the country hunting monsters.

"OK..." He said when the song ended. "That's your quota." He smiled, reminding me that while he would give in sometimes, dancing really wasn't his thing. I gave him a look that bordered on pure unadulterated lust, and pulled him over to the side of the bar. Guiding him to the chair he'd put his jacket on, I indicated he should sit down and then I climbed into his lap, facing and straddling him. It was a precarious balance, but it worked for now, I just wanted to feel him pressed against me, and also mark my territory for all the other women I'd noticed eyeing him off on the dance floor.

Dean certainly didn't seem to mind, a casual smile on his lips as he held me in place and returned my kisses eagerly. I was borderline dry humping him when he slowed the kisses and pulled slightly away. He didn't stop, but his eyes were on someone else, and I broke away to look around and see what had gotten his attention.

Sam had found us, and was now brooding over a newspaper a few tables over. I sighed and shook my head, going back to kissing Dean's neck, eliciting a few moans of encouragement from him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sam roll his eyes at us and start waving us over. I groaned my unwillingness to move as I nipped at Dean's earlobe. He growled and held up an index finger to Sam indicating that the younger Winchester brother was just going to have to wait his turn. He showered me with a few more hot kisses, his hands sliding up my bare back into my hair, causing me to shiver.

"Mmm... Beth." He moaned.

"Uh-huh." I said, kissing his neck again, rocking slowly in his lap.

"I think we need our own room tonight." He said with a grin.

I laughed, "Already taken care of," I informed him and he chuckled, running his hands back down through my hair as he turned to kiss me again.

Sam cleared his throat behind me and sat down at the table with his articles.

"For god's sake guys, get a room!" He chided us. I sighed, and kissed Dean a couple more times, eyes telling him that there was plenty more where that had come from, before sliding down to the floor and turning to take a drink of Dean's beer. Dean shifted a little awkwardly in his chair and pulled his jacket across his lap, I threw him an apologetic look, but I didn't feel _that bad _about it. He grabbed the other beer on the table and took a long, hard swallow.

"I did..." I informed Sam with a wink, recalling his comment. "We just haven't made it there yet." Dean laughed behind me and I leaned back into his legs, resting against him.

"All right, I think I got something." Sam said, ignoring my comment and looking at us now he had our attention.

"Yeah, me too Sammy. I think we need a little shore leave," I said with a grin, "I'm climbing the walls here." Sam shook his head.

"Yeah, Sammy. We can hook you up, got a few numbers from some girls over there." Dean said, nodding over at the bar where at least three gorgeous girls were checking out the two brothers. "What do you think?"

"Dean, no thanks, I can get my own dates." Sam said shaking his head.

"Yeah you can, but you don't." Dean pointed out and I took a big swig of beer from the glass in front of me. I'd lost track of whose beer was whose, I just claimed the one closest now. I had a moment to consider that I might not be all that sober right now, and I giggled at the idea – coming here had been a great idea.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sam asked in response to Dean's last comment.

"It means Sammy that you need to let your hair down once in a while, have a little fun." I said with another giggle.

"OK Tinkerbell... I think that's enough drink for you." Dean said, chuckling at my incessant giggle attacks that had started. He took the beer out of my hand and took a drink of it himself before putting it back on the table.

"Beth are you drunk?" Sam asked, looking at me.

"Nuh-uh." I said, my voice said no but my head was nodding up and down as I giggled again. I sighed, turning to lean back into Dean for a hug. He shook his head and wrapped a protective arm around me, kissing the top of my head.

"OK. What you got?" He asked Sam, nodding to the newspaper. He knew as well as I did that if we didn't get this out of the way we'd be here until sometime next year waiting for Sam to have a little downtime.

Sam shook his head at me and went back to his newspaper. "Mark and Ann Telesca of New Paltz, New York. Both found dead in their own home, a few days ago. Throats were slit. There were no prints, no murder weapons, all..." His voice trailed off as Dean got distracted by the little nips I was placing along his neck.

"Dean!" Sam said sternly and Dean groaned, looking at his brother.

"No prints, no murder weapons, all doors and windows locked from the inside." Sam finished.

Dean took another drink of his beer. "Could just be a garden variety murder you know, not our department." He suggested, hopeful. I nodded, though I wasn't really listening to much, my mind was on the pulse at Dean's neck that was racing despite his casual appearance on the outside.

"No, Dad says different." Sam said, frowning.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

Sam pointed at a map he'd spread on the table. "Dad noted three murders in the same area of upstate New York. First one here in 1912, second one right here in 1945, and the third in 1970. The same M.O as the Telesca's. Their throats were slit, doors were locked from the inside."

I sighed and pulled away from Dean just slightly to glance at the map. Dammit.

Sam saw me looking and raised an eyebrow, seeing he had my attention. "Now, so much time had passed between the murders that nobody checked the pattern, except Dad. He kept his eyes peeled for another one." He said.

"And now we got one. All right, I'm with you. It's worth checking out. We can't pick this up until first thing though right?" Dean asked.

"Yeah." Sam said with a sigh.

Dean turned and smiled at me, sliding off his chair. "Good!" He chuckled and swung me up into his arms, lifting me as if I weighed nothing more than a feather duster. I laughed and wrapped my arms around his neck, having the presence of mind to at least grab his leather jacket as he carried me past Sam toward the door. "See you in the morning!" He called back as he kicked the door open and carried me out the bar. Yep, this had been a great idea.

* * *

**Impala  
_Day 2_**

I regretted the amount of drinking I'd done the night before once I woke up in the morning. Sam had been hammering on our door at first light, and I swear we'd only just gotten to sleep. It had been a good night, but a sleep in would have been even better.

Dean had managed a bit better than me, not having drunk quite so much, but he was still moving slow as I watched him go up to the Telesca's town house with Sam. Sam of course was perky and ready to go. I groaned, and wrapped my jacket around me as I slumped in the front seat.

The next thing I knew I was jumping awake to the sounds of the horn! My heart leaped into my throat and raced a mile a minute. I startled to see Sam reaching in the open driver side window, hand pressed on the horn. "Jesus Christ Sam!"

"Man, that is so not cool." Dean chided, sliding into the back seat, sunglasses on, looking a bit worse for wear.

"We swept the Telescas with EMF. It's clean." Dean informed me and I nodded.

"And last night while you guys were... well... busy..." Sam shot me a knowing look.

"Good times," I grinned, looking back at Dean who smiled.

"...I checked the history of the house. Nothing strange about the Telescas." Sam finished, glaring at my comment.

"All right, so if it's not the people and it's not the house, then maybe it's the contents. Cursed object or something." I muttered, sitting up.

"The house is clean." Sam said.

"Yeah I know, that's already been said." I grumped.

"No, I mean it's empty. No furniture, nothing." Sam clarified.

I looked back at Dean who was shrugging. "Well where's all their stuff?" I asked. That was odd.

* * *

**Auction House**

I cast a gaze down at my jeans and green button down shirt, black leather jacket over the top. The boys were dressed in similar attire, Dean opting for his blue denim jacket today, and Sam in his brown one. I slipped my sunglasses into my pocket and looked around at the elegant items for sale, all the well dressed bidders standing around sipping on champagne.

"Hmm, I think we're a little under-dressed." I commented, and Dean just shrugged.

We wandered further into the auction house, Dean headed for the finger food as soon as he saw it and I felt my stomach turn – how the hell could he want food this morning?

I noticed one man in particular watching us out of the corner of his eye. He was average height, greying, dressed in a black suit and tie – he looked quite distinguished like everyone else in the room. He excused himself from the woman he was speaking with and started making his way over to us.

"Consignment auctions, estate sales. Looks like a garage sale for Wasps if you ask me." Dean was saying, taking some more food from a tray on the table we standing at, and moaning in appreciation as he chewed.

"Can I help you?" The gentleman from before asked, now standing beside us.

Dean and Sam turned to face him, and he regarded us with curiosity. Dean stuffed a canape into his mouth and chewed, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"I'd like some champagne please." Dean said, putting on a posh voice, which was challenging given his mouth full of food.

"He's not a waiter." Sam said sharply at Dean who froze, and then cocked an eyebrow at the man. I shook my head... _what are we doing here?_

Sam held out a hand to the man. "I'm Sam Connors." He introduced himself. The man looked at Sam, but didn't moved to take his hand. I snorted a little and turned away. Sam moved his hand to gesture at us.

"That's my brother Dean, and his uh... wife... Beth." I raised my eyebrow at that with an inner chuckle. "We're art dealers, with Connors Limited."

"You're art dealers?" The man said with a smirk.

"That's right." Sam nodded.

"I'm Daniel Blake, this is my auction house. Now gentlemen this is a private showing, and I don't remember seeing you on the guest list." He said dismissively to the boys.

"We're there chuckles, you just need to take another look," Dean said in a smart ass manner and I bit my lip, trying not to laugh. OK, so maybe he wasn't coping so well with last night's endeavours as well as he'd put on.

A waiter walked past and Dean snatched two glasses of champagne from the tray he was carrying. "Oh. Finally!" He said, waving one of the glasses under his nose, pretending he had some idea of what he was doing, before handing one to me. I stared at the contents for a moment and then decided, what the hell, a little hair of the dog wouldn't kill me. I took a sip before being turned and guided away fby Dean, who was taking a sip of champagne, eyes flashing a little frustrated.

"Cheers!" Sam said back to Blake as we melted into the crowd. Sam followed us, shooting Dean dirty looks.

We started going through the items, trying to sort out what might have belonged to the Telescas – each item had a tag on it, naming the family, but they were mixed in with other items so made it hard going. Dean was silent now, a frown on his face, he'd discarded his champagne glass and was pulling on drawers to dressers and looking about.

Sam and I were peering at an ugly portrait of a family that was displayed. It was creepy, in a sort of weird way. A family of five, posing in a sitting room. Two young boys to the right of their mother who was sitting in a chair, a daughter holding a doll to her left. The father stood at the back looking down at the daughter. I wondered why anyone would want to buy a painting like that, especially since it was of someone else's life, someone else's world.

"A fine example of American Primitive, wouldn't you say?" A voice said from behind us. I turned to see a beautiful brunette walking up to us in a black dress, her hair swept up into a bun with a few loose tendrils curling down the side of her face. Sam turned back to look at the painting, Dean I caught oogling the girl from a few years away. I shook my head and chuckled to myself.

"Well, I'd say it's more Grant Wood than Grandma Moses." Sam responded, and she looked down with a smile. "But you knew that, you just wanted to see if I did." Sam came back at her and I felt my jaw drop at him.

She smiled, and nodded. "Guilty. And clumsy. I apologise. I'm Sarah Blake." She said, extending her hand.

"I'm Sam. This is Beth, and my brother Dean." He said, indicating us.

Dean was attacking the food trays as a waiter went by, still stuffing his face. Where did he get his stomach? Mine was churning!

"Dean." Sarah said, giving him an appraising look. "Can we get you some more mini-quiche?" She asked with a smirk.

Dean chewed thoughtfully and shook his head. "I'm good, thanks."

Sarah turned back to Sam. "So, can I help you with something?" She asked, I watched her curiously, still nursing my champagne.

"Yeah, actually. What can you tell us about the Telesca estate?" Sam asked.

"The whole thing's pretty grisly if you ask me, selling your things this soon. But Dad's right about one thing, sensationalism brings out the crowds. Even the rich ones." She said giving Sam a coy little smile. I glanced at Sam who was looking at her with curiosity. Dean's raised eyebrow told me that he'd seen the little chemistry here too.

"Is it possible to see the provenances?" Sam asked and I found myself way out of my depth as far as this conversation was concerned.

"I'm afraid there isn't any chance of that." Daniel Blake said, coming up behind us. I smiled and slipped away to join Dean at the food table, giving him a warning look not to stuff himself too much.

"Why not?" Sam asked.

"You're not on the guest list. And I think it's time to leave." He said sternly, looking at us all.

Dean put on his haughty face and posh voice. "Well we don't have to be told twice."

"Apparently you do." Blake said to us with his own raised eyebrow.

"OK. It's all right. We don't want any trouble." I said, stepping up and putting my hand on Dean's arm. "We'll go." I said giving him a warning glance. Dean raised his eyebrow and turned on his heel, still giving off his posh look as he walked away. I followed, shaking my head, fighting off laughter.

I noticed Sam and Sarah exchanged a long look before he took my arm and led me after Dean.

* * *

**Motel Room**

Dean grabbed both of our bags off the back seat and slammed the car door shut, slinging one over his shoulder and carrying the other up to our motel room. We were back to sharing again, like usual, but I didn't mind, there was a comfort in it – us all being able to lounge about and talk, discuss the case, like we had as teenagers - we all liked it that way, it's why we usually got a room together.

"Grant Wood, Grandma Moses?" Dean said to Sam, scoffing.

"Art history course." Sam said with a sly smile. "It's good for meeting girls."

I laughed and opened the door to the room. "It's like we don't even know you!" I said, walking into the motel room. I stopped short, the boys bumping into me as I stood and stared.

The room was decked out as an over the top retro 70s disco fantasy.

"Wow." I said, taking in the black and white circular wall paper, the fibreglass topped little mini bar, and circular silver screens that led into where the two queen beds were against the back wall, covered in black and white covers, plush white headboards. The carpet was black, and several of the walls also black where there wasn't wallpaper. It was like walking into a giant chessboard, only with disco balls.

"Huh." Both boys said behind me, then they shrugged and pushed past me.

"What was the … providence?" Dean asked, putting my bag on the bed he'd just claimed for us, tossing his in the corner.

"Prov-e-nance." Sam corrected. "It's a certificate of origin, like a biography. You know we can use them to check the history of the pieces, see if any of them have a freaky past."

"Huh." Dean said thoughtfully. "Well, we're not getting anything out of chuckles, but Sarah..." He trailed off, snapping his fingers at Sam with a raised eyebrow and a grin.

Sam smirked back at him. "Yeah, maybe you can get her to write it all down on a cocktail napkin."

Dean laughed, looking at his brother. "Not me." He shook his head and I crossed my arms and grinned at Sam, this was fun.

"No no no, pick ups are your thing Dean." Sam said.

"It wasn't Dean's butt she was checking out." I chimed in with a raised eyebrow. Sam looked at me and Dean looked slightly offended, I grinned.

"In other words, you want me to use her to get information." Sam said, staring first at me, then Dean.

"Sometimes you gotta take one for the team, just ask Beth sometime." He chuckled and I grimaced, ignoring the comment. "Call her." He said more seriously at Sam, and it was decided, just like that. Sam was going on a date. Finally.

* * *

**Motel Room****  
**

Sam was out on his date, it was just the two of us and a _Die Hard _movie on TV. Dean had the whetstone out and was sharpening all the blades in the car. He had them out in a neat little row on the bed and was methodically working his way through them. This was our down time.

I chuckled and flipped through a second-hand book on ancient arcane symbols that I'd picked up at the local pre-loved bookstore, familiarising myself with the different pictures on the pages, reading a little about each symbol, just in case we might ever need to use them, or recognise them, or whatever.

Dean paused and looked up at me. "What's so funny?" He asked, tilting his head at me. I looked over at him from where I was lying on my stomach sprawled across Sam's bed.

"This." I said, with a smile.

"What?" He asked confused.

"Us. This motel room. The fact that it's a Saturday night and Sam's out on a date, and we're just chilling out, reading ancient arcane lore and sharpening knives. Nothing weird about us at all." I grinned, and he smirked.

"Well maybe we should get out of here, go back to that bar. We had a good time last night." He suggested with a wink, but he went back to sharpening the knife in his hand.

I groaned, rolling on to my back and holding my head. The hangover had passed, but I still felt a little seedy.

"Man, you gotta not let me drink so much." I said to him, turning my head to watch as he selected another knife and started sharpening it. He threw me an amused look.

"Babe. You and I both know that was a lost battle from the start." He smiled at me though. It didn't happen very often where we got to just relax and enjoy ourselves. It never happened when John was around.

"And now we've sent Sammy out to seduce the only lead we have..." I mused with a giggle.

He paused, watching me, and something flicked across his eyes.

"Hmmm." He said, thoughtfully. I leaned up on my elbows to gaze at him.

"What?" I asked, and he shrugged at me.

"Just how far do you think Sammy will have to go to get this information?" He asked, resuming the sharpening of his knife.

"I don't know. As far as he wants to go I guess." I said. "Or that she'll let him." I grinned, thinking further.

Dean chuckled, then looked at me all serious. "How far did you have to go?" Suddenly we were on a whole different discussion.

I raised an eyebrow and sat up to face him. "When?" I asked.

"You know when." He sighed at me. "Idaho?"

"Oh yeah..." I said, smiling fondly. It'd been a little over a year ago, and John had sent me off to chat up some high level security guard for a private organisation we'd needed access to. Dean's face had not been happy, not happy at all. We'd never spoken about it.

"You don't have to look so … pleased... about it." He said a little grumpily. I raised my eyebrow.

"Are you serious?" I asked, and his eyes showed me just how much he was.

"Wow, ok." I breathed, coming to sit on the bed in front of him, pushing the blades to the side.

Dean frowned at the mess I'd made of his knives, but I ignored it.

"I didn't do anything you wouldn't have done, Dean." I said cryptically, wanting to see just how deep this went.

He frowned. "That's what I'm afraid of." He muttered under his breath.

"Honestly Dean, you think that I really believe you'd do something to dishonour me? Us? After all these years?" I looked into his eyes and there was a glimmer there, I knew I was right. He shook his head, still not smiling.

"Well there you go." I said leaning forward to kiss him briefly.

His eyes narrowed. "So you and this …." He searched for the guy's name.

"Travis." I supplied, and his eyes widened that I remembered.

"Travis." He said deadpan. "Nothing happened?"

I sighed and got up to straddle him on the chair, looking him in the eyes. "This jealousy doesn't suit you Dean." I grinned, kissing him again. He just looked at me. "Nothing happened, he was a perfect gentleman. Mostly." I said with a little smile.

He let out a breath and sighed. "Yeah, ok. Good." He said, back to being all macho Dean again. "Glad we had this little chat." He said. I laughed.

"Oh no, no no no, if you think you're going back to boring reading and weapons after putting me through that painful conversation, you have another thing coming," I said, brushing my hand through his hair, mussing it up.

"Oh really?" He chuckled, kissing me softly.

"Really." I said with a twinkle in my eye.

He pushed me back on to the bed with a smirk and moved to lie on top of me, kissing me slowly, I had just enough time to wonder about putting the chain on the door when Sam decided to show up, fresh from his date.

Sam saw us on the bed and rolled his eyes. "Jesus you guys, what is up with you two lately?"

Dean chuckled and pulled back off me, I rolled over on to my stomach to look at Sam with a pleased smile.

"Did you get them?" I asked. Sam nodded and pulled a stack of papers out of his pocket.

"The providences?" Dean asked from the bar where he was cracking a beer.

"Provenances." Sam corrected him.

"Provenances?" Dean haltingly mimicked Sam.

"Yes. We went back to her place, I got a copy of the papers..." He walked into the room tossing the papers at me. I sat up and started to go through them.

"And...?" Dean asked, taking a drink of his beer and then sitting back down, picking up his whetstone again. He sighed when he saw the mess of knives next to me on the bed.

"And nothing. That's it, I left." Sam said.

I raised an eyebrow. "You didn't have to con her, or do any... special favours or anything like that?" I asked, throwing Dean a cheeky look.

"Beth, would you get your mind out of the gutter please?" Sam asked shaking his head.

Dean laughed. "You know when this whole thing's done, we could stick around for a little bit."

"Why?" Sam asked.

"So you could take her out again. Obviously you're into her, even I can see that." Dean answered.

Sam didn't respond and I was busy flipping through the papers.

"Hey I think I've got something here." I said, frowning.

Dean leaned forward to see what I was talking about and Sam joined me on the bed.

"Portrait of Isaiah Merchant's family, painted 1910." Dean read over my shoulder. I grimaced. It was that ugly painting we'd been looking at earlier in the day. Dean shrugged.

"OK and now check Dad's journal, compare the names of the owners." I said.

Sam picked up John's journal off his bed where I'd left it earlier and flipped to the page with John's notes about the mysterious murders.

"First purchased in 1912 by Peter Simms." I read to Sam, looking at him. He looked down at the journal.

"Peter Simms, murdered 1912." He said and I nodded.

"Same thing in 1945. And 1970." I said, pleased with myself. Sam took the provenances from my hands and looked for himself.

"Then stored until it was donated to a charity auction last month. Where the Telescas bought it." He looked up at us both. "What do you think, it's haunted? Cursed?"

Dean stood up, sheathing one of his knives with a confident movement. "Either way, it's toast." He said.

* * *

**Blake Auction House**

"You really don't need to come along on this one if your... head... is still hurting." Dean said to me, checking out what I called my _Mission Impossible _outfit. I was in black pants, black hoodie, and runners. The two of them were in the same old stuff they always wore – no fun at all.

Dean shook his head at me, "You ready to go then... Jane Bond?" He smirked and I nodded. The gates were high but I'd been incorporating a bit of scaling into my jogs every few days, it was always frustrating to me that the boys had so much more upper body strength and were able to get around a lot easier than me.

I let Dean give me a bit of a boost, but pulled myself the rest of the six or seven feet over the top of the gate, letting myself drop gracefully to the ground. Dean shook his head, impressed, and followed with Sam. We were in.

It was dark, and misty, and dead as a graveyard. Sam was at the alarm box, pulling the front cover off – it didn't take him long to disable it, Dean was waiting at the door, picks in hand, and at Sam's signal he opened the lock, and swung the door inwards. Flash lights in hand, we moved smoothly through the auction house until we came to the painting.

I pulled out one of the knives Dean had been sharpening earlier and cut the painting out of it's frame, rolling it up we left the way we'd come in. Perfect execution, no problems, in and out.

We stood down by a deserted road shortly after with the painting, Dean was lighting a match while Sam and I shone lights on it.

"Ugly ass thing." Dean said, staring at the painting. "If you ask me we're doing the art world a favour." I couldn't have agreed more.

He dropped the match and we all watched as it ignited, burning away.

* * *

**Motel Room  
**_**Day 3**_**  
**

Dean rushed in from the bathroom, looking a little panicked. I looked up from where I was packing the last of my things and frowned. "What's wrong?"

"We got a problem, I can't find my wallet." He said, looking about.

Sam was packing his duffel on the bed next to us.

"How is that _my _problem Dean?" He asked, shaking his head.

"Because I think I dropped it in the warehouse last night." Dean said, alarmed, pacing the room and shrugging into his blue jacket. I looked up at him. Sam looked flabbergasted.

"You're kidding right?" I was horrified at the idea.

"No!" Dean said, looking worried. "It's got my prints, my ID... well my fake ID anyway. We gotta get it before someone else finds it. Come on!"

* * *

**Blake Auction House**

I was looking everywhere for this damn wallet, Sam and Dean were one aisle over looking on the floor, and among cabinets.

"How do you lose your wallet Dean!" Sam said, frustrated. Dean looked over at me and shook his head at me, I paused, raising an eyebrow. To Sam he threw his hands in the air and kept looking around.

Out of the blue, Sarah walked into the room and saw us.

"Hey guys!" She said, walking up with a smile. Suddenly it dawned to me what Dean had been up to. I scowled, he could have at least let me in on the joke.

"Sarah! Hey." Sam said to the girl, looking both freaked out and happy at the same time.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, glancing between the three of us.

"Ahh, we... we are leaving town and we came to say goodbye." Sam said, looking uncomfortable.

Dean threw me a wink and walked over to Sam. "What are you talking about Sam, we're sticking around for at least another day or two." He said with a grin. Sam looked at Dean confused, Sarah smile.

I watched as Dean reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. "Oh Sam, by the way. I'm going to go ahead and give you that $20 I owe you." He looked at Sarah. "I always forget, you know." He said friendly.

Sam stared at Dean, disbelief on his face. I could tell he was livid underneath the cool exterior. I fought from laughing at Dean's obvious ploy to get his brother to loosen up a little, and I wished I had thought of it first.

"There you go." Dean said, handing the bill over. Sam snatched it and gave Dean a death glare, I snorted.

"Well, I'll leave you two crazy kids alone. I gotta go do something..." He looked at me, "Or... someone... somewhere else." He said with a grin, walking up to me and starting to pull me down the aisle. I looked back and looked in horror.

Dean saw my eyes first. "What? What is it?" He asked. I pointed, speechless. Sam was talking to Sarah about how Dean was screwing around and we were leaving today, when Dean turned to see what I was pointing at.

"OH my God!" Dean shouted, jumping.

Sarah jumped at the shout "What?" She asked, looking around.

Dean pointed past her, eyes wide, looking at the Merchant Painting. The very same painting we had burned the night before. It was back in its frame, unscathed. I frowned.

"The... that painting... looks so good." Dean stuttered, shaking his head as the painting was leaned up against a wall with a bunch of other paintings.

"If you can call that monstrosity good, then... yeah." Sarah said frowning.

"Sarah... what do you know about this painting?" Sam asked.

"Not much, just that it creeps me out. We sold it to the Telescas at a charity auction the night they were murdered." She informed us.

"Yeah, and now you're just going to sell it again?" I asked, my voice a little pitchy.

"As much as my Dad wants to, no, I won't let him. I think it would be in bad taste." Sarah said, looking at me.

"Good." Sam said, nodding. "You know what? Don't. Make sure you don't, ok?"

"Why? Don't tell me you're interested in that?" She asked, looking amused.

Sam looked flustered. "No. No God, no. Not in buying it no. You know what, we gotta go, we gotta take care of something. But ummm... I will call you back... I will call you, I'll see you later?"

I raised my eyebrow and Dean looked at me, blowing out a breath as he made a crash and burn sound. I hit him and shook my head. Sam was already halfway out the door.

"Wait... so you're... not leaving today?" Sarah said to me, confused.

"I guess not." I smiled, and hooked my arm through Dean's. "Well, be seeing you!" I said following Sam out the door.

Sam was pacing around the car once we got outside.

"I don't understand Dean, we burned the damn thing!" He ranted, still pacing.

"Yeah, thank you Captain Obvious." Dean said with a snort. "All right, we just need to figure out another way to get rid of it. Any ideas?"

"OK." I said, thinking. "All right. Well, in almost all the lore about haunted paintings, it's the painting's subject that haunts them." I said, thinking back to a book I'd read recently on it.

"Yeah. So we just need to figure out everything there is to know about that creepy-ass family and that creepy-ass painting." Dean said, nodding. "What were their names again?"

* * *

**Second Hand Book Shop**

It felt like I'd only just been here, the proprietor, whose name I'd learned was Jerry, recognised me straight away, and was more than happy to help out given that I'd dropped a few hundred in here on rare books just a few days earlier.

"You said the Isaiah Merchant family right?" Jerry was a short little stumpy fellow with a receding white hair line, round glasses perched on his flat nose, a little moustache above his lip. He reminded me of a mouse in his mannerisms – a little jumpy, hyperactive in the way he talked, and skitterish, I liked the guy.

"Yeah, that's right." I said, nodding. Dean walked up to smiling and flicking through an old book on guns, I shook my head at him. Same old Dean.

Jerry came back with a huge book which contained a bunch of newspaper articles. "I dug up every scrap of local history I could find." He told me. "Are you all crime buffs?"

"Kinda. Yeah. Why do you ask?" Dean asked, looking over at him.

"Well..." Jerry held up an article, it was on the _Titanic _and I saw Dean grimace. Not what we were looking for. But then I noticed a side article, which is what he was referring to. The headline read _"Father Slaughters Family, Kills Himself." _

"Hmmm." I said looking at Dean.

"Yes. Yeah, that sounds about right." He said, nodding to Jerry.

"The whole family was killed?" Sam asked, skimming the article.

"It seems this Isaiah, he slits his kids throats, then his wife, then himself. Now he was a barber by trade. Used a straight razor."

"Why'd he do it?" Sam asked, looking at Jerry.

"Let's look. Ahh... 'People who knew him describe Isaiah as having a stern and harsh temperament. Controlled his family with an iron first. Wife, two sons, adopted daughter..." Jerry trailed off as he read, then went on to quote something else he saw.

"Yeah yeah yeah... 'there were whispers that the wife was gonna take the kids and leave...' which of course you know in that day and age... so instead, old man Isaiah … well he gave them all a shave." Jerry made a motion of slitting his neck, Dean joining in with a chuckle and I made my "ewww" face at him, Dean uncomfortably changed his to a cough, which made me smile.

"Does it say what happened to the bodies?" Dean asked instead.

"It says they were all cremated." Jerry answered.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"Yeah. Actually I found a picture of the family. It's right here... somewhere." He opened up a book which was marked with a piece of paper and found what he was looking for. "Right, here it is."

We all leaned forward and found ourselves staring at a photo of the old painting.

"Hey, can we get a copy of this please?" Sam asked.

"Sure." Jerry said with a smile.

* * *

**Motel Room**

We were all sitting around the little table in the motel room. Sam had noticed something different about the painting.

"I'm telling you man, I'm sure of it. The painting at the auction house, Dad is looking down. Painting here, Dad's looking out. The painting has changed guys." Sam said, pointing to the copy of the photo we'd just gotten.

"All right, so you think that Daddy dearest is trapped in the painting and is handing out Columbian neckties like with his family?" Dean asked.

"Well yeah, it seems like it. But if his bones are already dusted, how are we going to stop him?" Sam asked.

"Well, if Isaiah's position changed then maybe other things in the painting did as well." Dean offered. "It could give us some clues."

"What, like a Da Vinci Code deal?" Sam asked.

Dean gave Sam a blank look and shook his head. "I don't... know. Uhhh.. I'm still waiting for the movie on that one." He said and I chuckled. "Anyway, we gotta get back in and see that painting."

Dean stood up and moved over to the bed, throwing himself on to his back and crossing his arms behind his head as he rested against the headboard. "Which is a good thing cause you can get some more time to crush on your girlfriend." He laughed.

"Dude. Enough already!" Sam said, irritated.

"What?" Dean asked innocently.

"What? Ever since we got here you two have been trying to pimp me out to Sarah. Just back off all right?" Sam said, looking from Dean to me.

"Well you like her don't you?" I asked, curious.

Sam raised his arms and eyes to the ceiling.

"All right, you like her, she likes you, you're consenting adults..." I pushed a little bit.

Sam threw me a frustrated look. "What's the point Beth? We'll just leave, we always leave."

I sighed. Dean sat up and looked at Sam. "We're not talking about marriage Sam."

"I don't get it, why do you care if I hook up?" Sam asked, agitated now.

Dean smirked and replied calmly. "Because then maybe you wouldn't be so cranky all the time." I tried to hide my smile. I had to agree, Sam had been awfully cranky lately.

Sam scoffed and then stared at us.

Dean looked at his brother. "Seriously Sam, this isn't just about hooking up ok, hey I think that this... Sarah girl could be good for you."

Sam scratched his head, but he said nothing, shaking his head at Dean.

"Sammy," I said, coming to kneel in front of Sam, taking his hands in mine. "Look, I don't mean any disrespect, but this is about Jessica right?" He looked at me but didn't say anything. "Now, I don't know what it's like to lose somebody like that... but... I would think that she would want you to be happy." I said gently. Sam had fallen quiet and was looking at me with tears in his eyes.

"She'd want you to have fun once in a while, wouldn't she?" I asked.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, I know she would." He said softly. I cupped his cheek in my hand and offered him a smile, which he returned half heartedly with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, you're right Beth. Part of this is about Jessica. But not the main part." He said.

"What's it about?" Dean asked, still listening to the conversation.

Sam fell silent again. I looked at him for a long while, but he was a closed book. Dean lay back down again and crossed his arms with a sigh.

"Well, we still got to see that painting, which means you still got to call Sarah... so..." Dean said pointedly. Sam sighed and I handed him his phone with an apologetic look.

I didn't know what was going through my little brother's head, but it worried me slightly. God knows how I'd cope if anything ever happened to Dean, I didn't even want to think about it, but there was this sadness inside of Sam, which I couldn't touch, and I felt like I couldn't help at all. I just wanted him to be happy, Dean and I both did, but he just refused to move forward.

"Hey, Sarah, it's Sam." The phone call was being put through. I went to sit with Dean on the bed, leaning up against the headboard with him. "Good. Good, yeah. What about you?"

Dean looked at me with a raised eyebrow and I nudged him in the ribs with my elbow, smiling.

"Yeah good, really good." Sam said again, and I shook my head.

"Smooth..." Dean whispered in my ear. I turned to look at him, raising my eyebrow.

"I seem to remember you being a bit caveman like in your conversations when you finally figured out your feelings for me." I grinned at him. He gave me a look as if to say I didn't know what I was talking about, and I kissed him on the cheek, which earned me a smile.

"So, so ah listen." Sam was saying. "Me and my brother, we were... uh... thinking that maybe we'd like to come back in and look at the painting again."

Dean was still shaking his head at his brother's lack of 'smoothness' and I moved his arm, placing it around me so I could sneak in a cuddle.

"I think maybe we are interested in buying it... what?!" We both snapped to attention at his tone, sitting up to listen.

Sam stood up and looked panicked. "Who'd you sell it to?"

Dean was already rising from the bed, listening very closely to what Sam had to say. I didn't like the sound of this conversation one bit.

"Sarah, I need an address, right now." Sam said urgently.

* * *

**Evelyn's House **

The painting had been sold again – I had to ask myself, who on earth would buy such an ugly ass thing, but then I didn't pretend to understand these upper class people and their tastes in so-called art.

Dean pulled the car up to the front of the customer's house. Evelyn her name was. We jumped out of the car, and Sarah joined us from a car waiting in the driveway.

"Sam, what's happening?" Sarah asked, worried.

Sam ran past her toward the house. "I told you, you shouldn't have come." He said, running up the stairs to the front porch with Dean. Dean started banging on the door, but there was no answer.

"Hello, anyone home?" He called out. No answer. Sarah and I joined them on the porch.

Dean was assessing the door, shaking his head. "I can't knock this sucker down. We'll have to pick it." He said, reaching out for the picks which I handed to him.

He knelt in front of the door and started working on the lock, Sam moved to start banging on the windows, they were covered with security bars, so there was no breaking in that way.

Sarah looked at me, frowning. "What are you guys, burglars?" She asked.

"I wish it was that simple," I said with a smile. "Look, it really would be best if you wait in the car. It's for your own good."

Dean got the door open and he and Sam quickly moved inside.

"The hell I will. Evelyn's a friend." Sarah said to me, pushing past and into the house. I followed with a sigh.

"Evelyn?" Sarah called out.

"Evelyn!" Dean yelled.

We entered into the lounge, Evelyn was sitting in front of the Merchant painting facing a fireplace. She wasn't moving. Sarah made a bee line for her, and in her haste none of us could reach and stop her.

"Evelyn? It's Sarah Blake... are you all right?" She asked, reaching out to touch Evelyn's shoulder.

"Sarah, don't! Sarah!" Sam called out to her just as Evelyn's head tipped back in the chair, her throat had been slashed.

Sarah screamed and Sam pulled her back. "Oh my god. Oh my God!" Sarah cried out, Sam was pulling her out of the room. I looked at the painting and gasped. The father was now looking outwards at us, where he'd been looking down at the little girl before. The painting had changed. I looked at Dean and he sighed, we were too late.

* * *

**Motel Room  
_Day 4_  
**

Dean was sitting at the bar with the laptop, I was making us all a fresh pot of coffee, it had been a late night and we were all tired. Sam was pacing the room and I debated whether he needed any caffeine, he was that worked up on adrenaline. I handed Dean his coffee and he took it with a smile, moving to the side a bit so I could lean against him and look at the laptop, cradling my own coffee in my hands.

There was a knock at the door and Sam went to open it. Sarah stormed past him, she looked shocked and angry.

"Hey. You all right?" Sam asked.

Sarah turned to him, her eyes flashing. "No actually, I just lied to the cops and told them I went to Evelyn's, alone, and found her like that."

We all sighed in relief, that was going to be one hell of a story for the police otherwise.

"Thank you." Sam said softly, giving her the puppy dog eye look.

"Don't thank me. I'm about to call them right back and tell them what the hell's going on." She said, angry. "Who's killing these people?"

Sam looked over at us, I shrugged and Dean raised his eyebrow, lot of good we were to him I thought with a chuckle. Sam glanced back at Sarah. "What." He said, simply.

"What?" She asked.

"It's not 'who'. It's 'what' is killing these people." Sam said gently. Sarah looked at Sam like he was full on certifiable, I grinned, we were kind of used to that.

Sam sighed. "Sarah, you saw that painting move."

She shook her head, starting to pace around the room, agitated. "No... no I was... I was seeing things. It's impossible."

"Yeah well, welcome to our world." Dean said sarcastically, taking a sip of his coffee and nodding to me.

"Sarah, I know this sounds crazy... but we think that the painting is haunted." Sam said, just adding a pound of nuts to the madness.

Sarah was almost in tears, she sniggered at Sam. "You're joking." Then she looked from him over to Dean and I, and then back at Sam.

"You're not joking. God, the guys I go out with." She said resignedly.

"Sarah, think about it. Evelyn, the Telescas, they both had the painting. And there have been others before that. Wherever this thing goes people die. And we're just trying to stop it. That is the truth." Sam said.

She took a deep breath. "Then I guess you'd better show me. I'm coming with you." I raised an eyebrow, she was sassy this one, strong and confident. Just what Sammy needed, I thought.

"The Force is strong with this one." Dean whispered to me and I sniggered.

"What?" Sam said, shaking his head. "Sarah, no, you should just go home. This stuff can get dangerous and... and I don't want you to get hurt."

"Look, you guys are probably crazy, but if you're right about this? Then me and my Dad sold this painting that got these people killed." She looked solemn at this declaration. "Look, I'm not saying I'm not scared, because I am scared as hell, but … I'm not going to run and hide either."

She turned and walked over to the door. I looked at Dean who shrugged. He was used to me being stubborn, this wasn't much different.

"So are we going or what?" Sarah asked, looking back at us. She turned and walked out without waiting for an answer.

"Sam?" Dean said, speaking at last, his voice thoughtful.

Sam looked over at Dean with a questioning look. Dean pointed at the door and chuckled.

"Marry that girl." He said definitively. I laughed at the idea of Dean telling anyone to get married. Just the same, I had to admit, she was pretty cool, I liked her.

* * *

**Evelyn's House**

It was day time. We'd returned to Evelyn's house to get at the painting. I was picking the lock and Sarah watched on curious.

"Ahhh, isn't this a crime scene?" She asked nervously.

"You've already lied to the cops, what's another infraction?" Dean asked with a shrug as he reached out with his pocket knife and cut open the police tape.

I got the door open and Sam entered ahead of us all, going to directly to the fireplace and painting. He lifted it off the wall and we all peered at it.

"Aren't you worried that it's … going to kill us?" Sarah asked, staring at the painting.

"Nah, it seems to do it's thing at night." Sam answered. "I think we're all right in the daylight."

Dean was comparing the picture in the book with the painting in front of us. "Check it out. The razor, it's closed in this one but it's open in that one." Dean said, nodding at the painting where in the corner of the painting there was a barber razor on a little table.

"What are you guys looking for?" Sarah asked.

"Well if the spirit's changing aspects of the painting, maybe it's doing so for a reason." I murmured, looking back and forth from the picture Dean was holding to the painting, taking it all in. Sam took the paper and made his own comparisons.

"Hey, look at this." Sam said, pointing. "The painting within the painting." I the photo of the painting, it was a simple country scene. In the canvas in front of us, it had changed.

"Looks like a crypt, or a mausoleum or something." Dean said, nodding. He looked around and seeing a thick glass ashtray he picked it up, holding it to the canvas and using it as a magnifying glass.

He frowned, reading. "Merchant."

There was a family mausoleum, interesting.

* * *

**Graveyard**

While I felt comfortable and at peace in a church, graveyards were a whole different thing. I never could get used to walking around a bunch of dead people. Dean was getting frustrated as we walked through the graves. "This is the third boneyard we've checked. I think this ghost is jerking us around." Dean complained. We ignored him and kept walking.

"So this is what you guys do for a living?" Sarah asked curiously.

"Not exactly," I said. "We don't get paid." I muttered, stepping over a grave.

"Well, mazel tov." She said with a chuckle.

"Over there." Sam said, pointing. Dean turned, looking anxious to get this over with. The mausoleum was identical to the painting. Dean broke the lock with some pliers and we pushed open the door, it was covered by cobwebs, no one had been here for a very long time. There were a bunch of name plates on the walls, and along the one side were some windows of glass, behind the glass were children's toys. Sarah looked into one at a doll.

"OK, that right there is one of the creepiest things I've ever seen." She said with a shudder.

"It was a... sort of tradition at the time." Sam explained, gesturing to the glass. "Whenever a child died, sometimes they'd preserve the kid's favourite toy in a glass case, put it next to the headstone or crypt."

"Notice anything strange here?" Dean asked, ignoring the conversation that was being had.

"Where do I start?" Sarah asked, looking around.

"No," I said, seeing what Dean did. "Look at the urns."

"There are only four." Sam said.

"Yeah, Mom and the three kids. Daddy dearest isn't here." Dean said with a frown, we stepped back and considered this, looking around to check the other plaques on the wall.

"So where is he?" Sam asked, when we couldn't find any evidence of him.

* * *

**County Office Buildings **

I was waiting outside the building with Sam and Sarah after begging out of the death certificate search. Dean had rolled his eyes at me, but let it be.

"So, what exactly is your husband doing in there?" Sarah asked me, and I raised my eyebrow at the husband comment, Sam smiled at me shaking his head.

"Uhh... searching county death certificates trying to find out what happened to Isaiah's body." I answered, not correcting her on the rest.

"How'd he even get in the door." She asked, curious.

"Lying and subterfuge, mostly." Sam answered and I laughed, jumping off the small wall we were sitting on and stretching my legs.

"Yep, _Mission Impossible, _that's us." I said with a chuckle. Sarah shook her head and there was a bit of a moment where she and Sam looked at each other. I decided to make myself scarce. Maybe I should have gone in with Dean after all. I wandered down the pavement a little, looking around at the grey, dreary day. Sam and Sarah seemed comfortable with each other, laughing and talking. I smiled, it was good to see him happy for a change.

I walked around the outside of the building to get a little exercise. As I approached Sam and Sarah, I realised I was privy to a bit of their conversation.

"Look, it's hard to explain. It's just when people are around me. I don't know, they get hurt." Sam was saying, his back turned to me. I hesitated, but decided that I wanted to know what had been going on with him lately, so I decided to eavesdrop.

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked, looking at him.

"I mean physically hurt. With what the three of us do, it's..." He paused, looking down with a sigh.

"...Sarah, I had a girlfriend. She died. And my Mom, she died too. I don't know, it's like, like I'm cursed or something. Like death just follows me around. Look, I'm not scared of much, but I'm scared if I let myself have feelings for anybody..." Sam's voice trailed off.

"You're scared they'd get hurt too. That's very sweet." Sarah said with a smile. "And very archaic."

"Sorry?" Sam asked.

"Look I'm a big girl Sam, it's not your job to make decisions for me. There's always a chance of getting hurt." Sarah said and I looked at her, I was liking this girl more by the minute.

"I'm not talking about a broken heart and a tub of Haagen Das." Sam replied. "I'm talking about life and death." The image of Sam's idea of a break up made me chuckle. If only.

"And tomorrow I could get hit by a bus, that's what life is. Look, I know losing somebody you love is terrible. You shut yourself off. Believe me, I know. But when you shut out pain, you shut out everything else too." Sarah said.

"Sarah you don't understand, The pain that I went through...I can't go through it again. I can't." Sam said, looking at her.

I'd been so consumed in what I was listening to that I'd failed to hear Dean come up behind me. I was just as startled as Sam and Sarah, when he spoke.

"Am I interrupting something?" He ran his hand up my back, somehow he'd come up right beside me. I chided myself for getting so distracted and he raised an eyebrow at me.

"No!" Sam said, shifting uncomfortably.

"No, not at all." Sarah said, looking back at us.

Dean looked between the two of them to me, and I shrugged.

"Huh. Apparently." He said with a smirk.

"So what did you get?" Sam asked, changing the subject.

"Paydirt. Apparently the surviving relatives of the Merchant family were so ashamed of Isaiah that they didn't want him interred with the rest of the family. So, they gave him over to the county, the county gave him a pauper's funeral. Economy style. Turns out he wasn't cremated, he was buried in a pine box." Dean said.

"So there are bones to burn." I said.

"There are bones to burn, baby." Dean said with a smile.

"Tell me you know where." I said with a raised eyebrow, he just grinned.

* * *

**Graveyard**

The day had faded to night. I cursed under my breath as we started getting deeper into the ground, which meant longer reaches to get the dirt out of the hole. The ground was soft from the recent rainfall, at least there was that to be thankful for. Sam grunted and pulled himself out of the hole, we were close to being done.

"God I hate doing this at night." I muttered, throwing another shovel full of dirt behind me.

"You say that every time Beth." Sam said chuckling.

"Well, I mean it every time!" I said with a laugh.

"You guys seem to be uncomfortably comfortable with this." Sarah said from where she was holding the flash light for us.

"Well, this isn't exactly the first grave we've dug," Sam said. "Still think I'm a catch?"

"Think I've got something." Dean interrupted us as his shovel his something solid. He smashed at it with the shovel and the wood below us opened up to reveal a body.

"Ugh." I said with a grimace. I hated this part every time too.

We climbed out of the freshly dug grave, and Dean poured salt over the body while Sam got out the kerosene and added it to the mix.

Dean struck a match, and stood looking down at the body for a moment. "You've been a real pain in the ass, Isaiah. Good riddance." He said, and dropped the match into the hole. The body burned, and then we had the task of covering it all over again.

* * *

**Evelyn's House**

Dean pulled the Impala up and Sam opened the back seat door.

"Keep the motor running." He said to Dean.

"I thought the painting was harmless now?" Sarah asked from next to Sam.

"Better to be safe than sorry." He said, looking back at her.

Sarah climbed out the door on her side and looked back in the door at Sam. "I'm gonna come with you."

"You sure?" Sam asked, looking uncertain and she answered by shutting the door on him.

"Yes." She replied, shutting the door behind her.

"Hey! Hey hey, we'll stay here, you go make your move." Dean said to Sam in a conspiratorial tone, grinning at me.

Sam smirked and climbed out of the car. Dean chuckled to himself and changed the radio station. When he found what he was looking for he called out to his brother.

"Sam. Sam!" As Sam and Sarah moved up the stairs to the front door, Dean turned the love ballad playing on the radio up so they could hear, the strains of _Once more once _by Alan Pasqua playing across the courtyard.

Sam turned to glare at us and Dean laughed, making an innocent gesture.

They moved inside and Dean turned to me with a laugh, shutting off the radio.

"Seriously, he needs to marry that girl." He said, and I nodded my agreement.

We sat in comfortable silence while the motor ran, waiting for them to finish up with the painting.

Suddenly the front door to the house slammed shut, catching our attention.

"Oh that can't be good." I muttered reaching for the door. Dean was already out the door, and I followed hot on his heels.

"Sammy, you all right?" Dean called out banging on the door and trying the handle. Nothing. We couldn't hear anything.

Dean's phone started ringing in his back pocket and he pulled it out. "Tell me you slammed the front door." He said, looking at me, I was reaching into my jacket to pull out the lock picks and starting at the lock.

There was a pause as Sam answered and then Dean frowned.

"Girl? What girl?" He asked. I started to think about what could be happening in there, there had been a little girl in the painting, Isaiah had been looking down at her... I looked up, trying to listen to what they were saying. Dean switched to speaker phone.

"_I think she's out of the painting, I think it's been her all along." _Came Sam's anxious voice over the phone.

"Wasn't the Dad looking down at her? Maybe he was trying to warn us?" I asked, cursing at the lock, I couldn't get it and the door was too strong to break down.

"_Hey hey hey, let's recap later all right? Get us out of here!" _Sam sounded panicked, and the sinking feeling that Sarah was trapped in there with him set in.

"Well, Beth's trying to pick the lock, the door won't budge."

_"__Well, knock it down." _Sam said over the phone.

I laughed and Dean rolled his eyes. "OK genius, let me just grab my battering ram."

"_Dean, the damn thing is coming." _Sam's voice was a little pitchy, he was worried.

"Well you're just gonna have to hold it off until we figure something out. Get some salt or iron." Dean said, looking at me. I was fresh out of ideas.

We listened to Sam ramble as he moved around the house, there was no salt to be found, and then there was a sound of scuffle over the phone. Dean was trying to budge the door with his shoulder again, he handed me the phone to hold on to. When he couldn't move it we tried together with our combined weight, still nothing.

"Sammy, you ok?" I asked into the phone hesitantly.

"_Yeah, for now._" Came the reply.

"How we going to waste her?" Dean asked, looking at me.

"I don't know, she was already cremated. There's nothing left to burn." I said, worried.

"Then how's she still around?" Dean asked.

"_There must be something else." _Sam said. I shrugged and Dean looked a little panicked at the direction this conversation was taking. He started to pace the outside of the house, looking for a way in, I followed him still talking to Sam.

There was a conversation between Sam and Sarah that I couldn't quite make out as I tried to see about getting in one of the windows, maybe.

"_Dean, Sarah said the doll might have the kid's real hair. Human remains, the same as bones."_

"The mausoleum!" Dean and I said in unison.

We raced back to the car, Dean sliding into the driver's seat and roaring out the drive before I'd even had half a chance to put on my seat belt. The gates were locked at the graveyard and I saw Dean clench his jaw, I cringed, oh this wasn't going to do the Impala any favours.

We crashed right through, knocking one gate right off it's hinges. Dean didn't slow down until he got to the mausoleum, skidding to a halt just yards from the entrance. I was out the door, opening the doors which were still unlocked from earlier. I tried to smash at the glass container with my elbow, but the glass was too tough, it wouldn't break.

Dean ran in behind me and saw that it wouldn't break, he tried smashing the glass with the butt of his gun, but still nothing.

"Get back!" He instructed me and I fell behind him. He looked at the gun and groaned, pushing me further behind him as he muttered at the insanity of what he was about to do, then he lifted the gun and fired at the glass, moving to cover me from the glass. The glass shattered, and he was able to knock out the rest with the gun, grabbing the doll.

I pulled out a lighter from his jacket pocket and flicked it. It wouldn't light.

"Come on, come on." Dean muttered and I flicked it again. The lighter finally caught and I held it under the doll's hair. It began to smoke and burn, then went up in flames.

I was already dialling Sam on my phone, breathless with worry. Sam answered and I sighed with relief.

"Sam, you ok?" I asked, Dean watched me with concern.

"_Not bad." _Sam said to me, and I smiled, nodding at Dean who visibly relaxed. This was three visits to a graveyard in 24 hours, I wasn't impressed, I leaned back against the side of the mausoleum and chuckled. Dean smiled and moved in to lean against me, our foreheads resting together.

"That was close." He said, and I nodded. "I hate it when it's close." He muttered with a sigh. I didn't answer, just rested my hands on his chest, feeling the soft rise and fall of his breathing. It was enough. Close was better than failure.

* * *

**Outside Auction House  
****_Day 5_**

I approached Dean, Sam and Sarah who were standing around watching the creepy-ass painting get crated up. In my hands I had found some more information that shed a greater light on the whole mess.

"This was archived in the county records. The Merchant's adopted daughter, Melanie. Know why she was up for adoption?" The others shook their heads at me. "Because her real family was murdered in their beds." I said with a flourish.

"She killed them?" Sarah asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. Who'd suspect her? Sweet little girl... so then she kills Isaish and his fmaily, the old man takes the blame. His spirit's been trying to warn people ever since." I finished, glancing over at the painting now it was crated up.

A worker came up and looked at Sarah. "So where's this one go?" He asked.

"Take it out back and burn it." She instructed and everyone stopped to stare at her.

"I'm serious guys!" She said, looking at the worker. "Thanks."

She turned to look at us. "So why'd the girl do it?" She asked.

"Killing others? Killing herself?" Sam asked, shrugging. "Some people are just born tortured. So when they die, their spirits are just as dark."

"Maybe." Dean said, thinking. "I don't really care. It's over, we move on." I smiled, sometimes I wondered if it was really that simple for him.

"I guess this means you're leaving." Sarah said sadly, looking at Sam.

Sam was staring at us with an expectant look, Dean was looking back from Sarah to Sam. I shook my head and grabbed Dean by the arm, pulling him back over by the Impala.

"We'll go wait in the car..." I said, giving Dean a stern look. "See you Sarah."

Dean was grumbling as we reached the Impala. "I'm the one got us to that doll, and burned it, destroyed the spirit, but don't thank me or anything." I chuckled, leaning against the car and pulling him up against me, my arms circling his waist.

"Hmmm, I have your thank you right here." I said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh yeah?" He asked, smiling at me. I nodded and leaned up to catch his lips with mine. He returned the kiss eagerly, before pulling away slightly so we could look over at Sam and Sarah.

They were smiling at each other, and having a long meaningful moment. "Think he'll be ok?" I asked, Dean nodded beside me. Sarah had retreated to the house, and Sam was walking toward us. I frowned. "He didn't even kiss her goodbye!" I whispered.

Suddenly Sam stopped, conflicted. He turned on his heel without warning and went to knock on the door. Sarah opened the door with a smile, and Sam moved in to kiss her. I smiled.

Dean chuckled, looking at me. "That's my boy."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

* * *

_Awww, I like Sarah! I wish she and Sam had gotten together, she'd have been good for him I think._

* * *

_Thanks for the comments on the last chapter :D If anyone was curious, I kind of pictured Bailee Madison as a young Beth, she's so cute! If you haven't seen her in Just Go With It you should :D_

_I kind of picture Rose Byrne as present-day Beth. When I did the artwork for the picture it was Nine Dobrev, but Rose has a softer face and demeanour about her, she's a great fit for how I want Beth to be, so I changed it._

_Wish they had a way to upload pics to the stories, I made one up of young Dean & Beth talking in the chapel! Haha Maybe I need a FB page :D_

* * *

_Song for the chapter is: 3 Doors Down – Here without You.  
More for Sam this song, poor Sammy and his doomed relationship with Jess._

_With special mention to Nelly Furtado's Promiscuous :D just because I can, and I love the song, and well it was released around the time of this episode :D_

* * *

_We're heading into the endzone for Season one... Vampires up next!_

**_Question for everyone out there:_**

_I'll be taking on Season 2 in a new Story. What do you think I should call the story? _

_I'm realising now I should have saved Highway To Hell for Season 3 LOL_

* * *

_Once again, welcome to the new followers, and thanks to everyone for their reviews, they definitely give me inspiration to keep up the super fast updates :D_

* * *

_R4L – I did have to chuckle at your lovely comments about Dean & Beth not being all in your face romantic because I do aim to not be full on with them. I'd written the first part of this chapter before I read that and I just laughed when I saw what you'd said – yeah, they're not so subtle in this chapter to begin with. I promise, they'll go back to being a little more modest, they just have their moments of fun, everyone has to let their hair down sometime, especially since they share a room with Sam like 90% of the time! haha_


	19. Dead Man's Blood

_**A/N - A little shorter than usual, but still fun as we move into the endgame.**_

* * *

_I'm better  
So much better now  
I see the light, touch the light,  
We're together now_

_I'm better_  
_So much better now_  
_Look to the skies, give me life_  
_We're together now_

_We've only just begun_  
_Hypnotized by drums_  
_Until forever comes_  
_You'll find us chasing the sun_

_They said this day wouldn't come_  
_We refused to run_  
_We've only just begun_

_You'll find us chasing the sun_

* * *

**DEAD MAN'S BLOOD**

* * *

**Diner – Somewhere in Nebraska**

The table under my hands was a little sticky, and we were surrounded by working class people out having some lunch in a diner that advertised home cooking. Sam was hunched over the laptop, reading some more recent headlines while Dean and I pored over the newspaper.

Dean sat back with a sigh, dropping the paper on the table. "Well, guys. Not a decent lead in all of Nebraska." He said, looking over at Sam. "What have you got?"

"Well, I've been scanning Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota. Here. A woman in Iowa fell 10,000 feet from an aeroplane and survived." Sam said.

Dean considered, but not that seriously. "Sounds more like That's Incredible' than 'Twilight Zone'," he said finally. I nodded.

"Yeah." Sam sighed, sitting back in his chair.

"Hey you know we could just keep heading east. New York. Upstate. We could drop by and see Sarah again huh? Cool chick man, smokin'..." He whistled when he said this, but took the time to smile at me and slide his arm around my shoulders as a way of making it up to me. I smiled. "You two seemed pretty friendly. What do you say?" He asked finally.

Sam smirked "Yeah, maybe... someday. In the meantime we got a lot of work to do Dean, you know that." Sam said, looking at the pair of us. He was like a dog with a bone, out to get all the bad guys he could. He'd been like this for months, and it was tiring us out a little as the older siblings. Dean and I had laid in bed talking about an honest to god holiday last night - now that was sad, we never talked like that, we were pretty happy with our nomadic, unpredictable life. But a few battered bodies later had us thinking about a week on the beach somewhere, with massages and hot springs, fun stuff that wouldn't get us killed.

Dean and I exchanged glances, and I shrugged. "Yeah all right. What else do you have?" I asked, giving in.

"Ahh, a man in Colorado, a local man named Daniel Elkins was found mauled in his home." Sam said, looking back at the laptop.

"Elkins?" Dean asked, his brow furrowing. "I know that name." He muttered and I nodded, I came across this sort of stuff all the time when I flipped through books and other research, usually random facts stuck in my brain, I knew I'd heard this name though, just couldn't remember where.

"Doesn't ring a bell." Sam said, but I was thinking now.

"Elkins... Elkins... Elkins..." Dean muttered to himself deep in thought.

"Sounds like the police don't know what to think. At first they said it was some sort of bear attack and now they've found some signs of robbery." Sam read from the screen.

I had grabbed John's journal out of my bag and started flipping through it. Dean was nodding, leaning over me and pointing to a section.

"There, check it out." He said in my ear. On the journal page was a name D Elkins along with a telephone number.

"You think it's the same Elkins?" I asked, looking at him.

He shrugged. "It's a Colorado area code." He said simply. It was worth a look either way.

* * *

**Elkins' Cabin**

_**Colorado**_

It was cold, the weather was starting to turn as we headed into Fall, and up in the mountains of Colorado the days were getting shorter, and the nights were getting colder. Sam picked the lock of the cabin with ease and opened the door. We flashed our lights ahead of us as we entered.

"Looks like the maid didn't come today." Dean said as he shone his flash light around. There was debris everywhere, there'd obviously been a scuffle on top of the fact that Elkins might now have been the best housekeeper to begin with.

"There's salt over here, right by the door." I commented, bending to look down at the thick white granules in a pile.

Dean moved to the desk and started to flip through a book he found. "You mean protection against demon salt, or 'whoops I spilled the popcorn' salt?" He asked me. I looked up at him, his face in shadow. "It's clearly a ring." I said, standing up and looking around.

"Do you think this guy Elkins was a player?" Sam asked, walking across the room.

"Definitely." Dean said, still looking through the book he had in his hands.

I crossed the room to look over Dean's shoulder and see what had caught his attention. He was holding a journal, a lot of hand writing in it. "That looks a hell of a lot like Dad's." I commented, curious.

"Yep, except this dates back to the 60s." Dean said, looking up at me. Well that was curious.

Sam moved further into the cabin, and I dropped the journal into my bag when Dean moved away. Never know when it might come in handy; at any rate, Daniel Elkins wouldn't be using it again.

I followed Dean as he joined Sam in the next room, eyes widening when I saw the destruction that waited for us, I'd thought the last room was bad, this was worse. Dean shone his light up, indicating that someone, or something, had come through the skylight, bits of timber and glass littered the floor.

"Whatever attacked him, it looks like there was more than one." Sam commented with a grim look. I nodded.

"Looks like he put up a hell of a fight too." Dean said. I stepped past Dean and tread carefully among the debris. It was a mess. Among the timber and glass were bits of paper, notes and assorted items from lamps to books. I crouched down on the floor, trying to get a different perspective.

That's when it caught my eye, faint, you wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't been looking for something out of the ordinary. Dean noticed me move closer to peer at the floor.

"You got something?" He asked me.

"I don't know. Some scratches on the floor..." I said, brushing my fingers over the bit of the floor which had caught my attention. I lifted my hand and grimaced, the blood was still fresh.

"Death throes maybe?" Sam asked, glancing over as I wiped my hand on my jeans.

"Yeah, maybe." I answered, but I wasn't convinced.

Dean grabbed a page from a notebook and knelt down next to me. He placed the paper over the marks and rubbed at it with a pencil. It made an outline.

"Or maybe a message." He said, looking up into my eyes before handing me the paper. "Look familiar?"

I looked down and shook my head, raising an eyebrow at what I was looking at.

"Three letters, six digits. The location and combination of a post office box." I said, looking at him. "It's a mail drop."

Dean nodded. "Just the way Dad does it."

Well, the night had just gotten more interesting.

* * *

**Post Office**

We'd finished up looking around at the cabin, nothing else stood out to us other than the usual fact that we'd been standing in the home that had once belonged to a hunter, and there were so many things I wanted to take or look over, to study, but we didn't have the time to hang around, whatever had attacked Elkins may well still be out there.

Dean entered the combination into the post office box, opening the little door to it. Inside was a single letter in an envelope. Dean and Sam looked at each other curiously before Dean reached in to grab it, turning it to see who is was addressed to. It simply had "J.W." and a PO Box address on the envelope.

We got back in the car, the boys in the front, and I leaned forward to lean over the seat.

"J.W. You think? John Winchester?" Sam asked, looking at Dean.

Dean shrugged. "I don't know. Should we open it?" He asked, looking back at me like I had all the answers, I didn't have the faintest idea.

There was a rap at Dean's window and we all jumped, startled by the sudden intrusion. Dean reared back, automatically raising his arm with his fist clenched. I wondered if he'd planned on punching out the window, or had thought someone might try to pull him out of the car.

The face staring back at us made him relax though. Those big brown eyes looked back at us, smiling and we all took in a breath.

"Dad?" Dean asked, turning to look as John climbed in the backseat with me. I leaned in to him and gave him a spontaneous hug, he smiled and wrapped his arm around me, leaving it there, it was more of a comfort than I wanted to admit, I'd missed him this past year.

"Dad what are you doing here? Are you all right?" Sam asked, looking back at us.

"Yeah, I'm ok. I read the news about Daniel, I got here as fast as I could. I saw you guys at his place." John said, looking at each of us in turn, he looked exhausted, like he'd driven all night.

"Why didn't you come in Dad?" Sam asked softly.

"You know why." John replied with a stern look. "Because I had to make sure you weren't followed... by anyone or anything." I smiled, that was so John.

"Nice job covering your tracks by the way." John added looking at Dean.

Dean looked proud of himself, and that made me happy. "Yeah, well, we learned from the best." Dean said, smiling at me.

"Wait, you came all the way out here for this Elkins guy?" Sam asked, completely missing the whole proud daddy/son/daughter moment the rest of us were having.

"Yeah." John said, shifting his gaze to Sam. "He was... he was a good man. He taught me a hell of a lot about hunting." He said quietly.

"You never mentioned him to us." I said softly, looking up into those big brown eyes.

Sadness flashed across his eyes and he nodded slightly. "We had a... we had kind of a falling out. I hadn't seen him in years."

I nodded. It seemed to be the way with hunters, I said a quiet prayer that none of us ever got to that point. John gestured to the unopened envelope Dean was still holding.

"I should look at that." He said and Dean handed it over. John pulled away from me and sat back a little while he read the letter. "If you're reading this, I'm already dead..." He muttered as he scanned the letter.

Eventually John looked up in frustration. "That son of a bitch!" He cursed under his breath.

"What is it?" Dean asked, looking concerned.

"He had it the whole time." John said cryptically.

"Dad, what?" Sam asked, frowning.

John looked up at us, also frowning.

"When you searched the place, did you see a gun. An old revolver, an antique, did you see it?" He asked urgently. I shook my head.

"Ahh there was an old case but it was empty." I told him, remembering what we'd seen.

"They have it." John said, looking out into the night.

"Yeah mean whatever killed Elkins?" Dean asked, twisting to get a better look at his father.

John started to get out of the car. "We gotta pick up the trail." He said. Sam's voice stilled him a moment.

"Wait. You want us to come with you?" Sam asked, the tone of his voice gave away his disbelief.

John looked back at us. "If Elkins was telling the truth, we gotta find this gun." He said with a short nod.

"The gun, why?" Sam asked, always questioning.

"Because it's important, that's why." John replied, not going into any detail.

"Dad, we don't' even know what these things are yet." Sam said, starting to get worked up, like he always did with John.

John paused before answering. "They were what Daniel Elkins killed best: Vampires." He said. Dean's jaw could have hit the floor, I gaped.

"Vampires?" I asked, curious.

"I thought there was no such thing." Dean added, frowning.

"You never mentioned them Dad," I said, looking at John.

"I thought they were extinct. I thought Elkins and others had wiped them out." He paused, looking down, thinking hard. "I was wrong." He said finally, with a sigh.

"Well what can you tell us about them?" I asked, there was an awful lot of lore out there, most of which we'd never paid attention to because we'd never seen an honest to goodness real vampire. It kind of sounded silly just saying it right now. Vampires?

John looked at us. "Most vampire law is crap. A cross won't repel them," he said, gesturing to my rosary. "Sunlight won't kill them, and neither will a stake to the heart. But the blood-lust, that's true. They need fresh human blood to survive. They were once people, so you won't know it's a vampire until it's too late," he cautioned us.

"You have Elkins' journal?" He asked, looking at me. I nodded, _how did he know that? Man he was good._

"Good. There'll be more in that. We need to find a place to bunker down until dawn, let's go." And with that he was out the door and heading for a pick-up truck nearby, leaving us all staring at each other, speechless.

* * *

**Motel Room**

The static on the police scanner woke me. It took me a moment to get my bearings, and there was a heavy arm pinning me to the bed. I turned my head to see Dean's face up in mine, mouth hanging open as he slept soundly. I kissed his nose with a little smile, and then extricated myself from his grip, sliding out from under his arm.

John was sitting by the window with the scanner, Sam was asleep in the other bed. I stretched, a little uncomfortable from sleeping fully dressed, bra and all, we hadn't even gotten under the covers. Dean was sprawled out on his stomach, hogging the bed, I shook my head and padded over to John, sitting down on the chair next to him.

"Hey Bethie." He said softly, smiling at me. I smiled back.

"Shouldn't you be getting some sleep?" I asked, looking over at Sam in the bed.

"Tried, but Sam is such a wriggler." He said with a chuckle. I nodded, I remembered all too well when we used to share a bed as young teens.

"Well he's not as bad as Dean," I said with a laugh and he looked at me with a twinkle in his eyes.

"How are you all, really?" He asked, serious now. I let out a long breath and pulled my legs up under me.

"We're ok, I think. We've missed you. Dean especially, though he won't admit it." I said to him, he nodded.

"And how's your... demon sense thing... going?" He asked. I shrugged. I hadn't really been up against any demons in a while, so it was kind of hard to tell.

"I dunno really. We crossed the path of a half-demon a few weeks back... the nausea, dizziness, it was there, but fleeting, not crippling like before, I think I can control it a little better. The more time I spend praying the easier it gets." I said, and received a nod.

"When all this is done, take a trip to see Pastor Jim. He'll have more information for you I think." John said and I nodded. It had been a long, long time since I'd been up to Minnesota. John sighed. "Unfortunately, it was your father who had the most expertise in that area." I looked down, we didn't really talk about my father much.

John had told me that Dad had started hunting when was a teen, he didn't know why though. He'd gotten into demons when he saw a possession as a young minister after his time in the US Marine Corps. It had scared the life out of him - which was saying something given the hell John and Dad had gone through in Vietnam. The church hadn't really been much help, they didn't really believe in demons, even if they preached about them – it was another hunter who had come and helped him out. After that my father had gone on a mission to find out more, wherever he could. Pastor Jim had been one of his mentors, but there had been others too, many of them now dead.

The radio crackled. "_Unit 22 let me confirm. Mile marker 41, abandoned car. You need a work-up?_" Came a voice across the radio.

_"Copy that. Possible 207. Better get forensics out here."_

John jumped to his feet and grabbed his jacket, I knew 207 to be a kidnapping, but I was a little puzzled why we would be interested in that. But I didn't question, he didn't even have to tell me to get up, I was already pulling on my boots, and shrugging my jacket over the top of my sweater.

John slapped the feet of Dean and Sam who were still happily snoring away. "Sam, Dean, let's go." He ordered, putting on his jacket.

Dean rolled over, responding immediately with a "Mm-hmmm" but he was still half asleep. Sam sat up and looked at John and I standing there, ready to go. Dean rubbed his eyes and let out a slight groan when he saw I was up.

"I picked up a police call." John said, gathering a few of his things.

"What happened?" Sam asked, starting to get out of bed.

"A couple called 911, found a body in the street. Cops got there and everyone was missing. It's the vampires." John was already halfway out the door, he never had been one to let us wake up when on the job - it was get out of bed, and get out now, or be left behind. I'd learned to sleep fully dressed and half awake when he was around.

"How do you know?" Sam asked, always questioning.

"Just follow me, ok?" John said, leaving out the door.

Sam was walking across the room, putting his jacket on when Dean sat up on the edge of the bed, shaking his head.

"Vampires... get's funnier every time I hear it." He said sleepily, I shook my head with a laugh, you just never knew what you were going to come across in our line of work.

* * *

**Roadside – Abandoned Car**

John was talking to a cop over by the crime scene, we were all waiting by the Impala. Some of us were being patient, one of us wasn't. Eventually John started walking back to us.

Sam was sulking, slouching against the side of the car. "I don't see why we couldn't have gone over with him," he grumped.

"Oh don't tell me it's already starting." Dean groaned and I tried to hide a smile. Oh it was starting all right.

"What's starting?" Sam asked, surprised.

Dean ignored him and looked at his father instead as he got near. "What have you got?" He asked.

"It was them all right. Looks like they're heading west. We'll have to double back to get around that detour." John said.

"How can yo be so sure?" Sam questioned.

"Sam..." I cautioned. Dean was right, it had already started again, the bickering, the questioning of command, the loss of the peace.

"I just want to know we're going in the right direction!" Sam said sharply to me, and I frowned at him to let him know he shouldn't be taking his issues out on me.

"We are." John said with a certainty.

"How do you know?" Sam questioned again, drawing a sigh from Dean.

"Because I found this." John said, handing something to Dean. I looked over to see what he was holding. Dean frowned, looking it over.

"It's a... a vampire fang?" He asked.

"Not fangs, teeth. The second set descends when they attack." John said, and I had a grisly image stuck in my head then.

John looked at Sam. "Any more questions?" Sam looked away, but thankfully stayed silent.

"All right, let's get out of here, we're losing daylight." John ordered and we climbed into the Impala while John headed for his truck.

As he passed the Impala, John shook his head. "Hey Dean, why don't you touch up your car before you get rust? I wouldn't have given you the damn thing if I thought you were going to ruin it." I grimaced and Dean looked chagrined. Sam threw us both an 'I told you so' look, and we got in the car with a sigh. OK so some things never changed, didn't matter where you were.

Sam was driving, I was reading from Elkins' journal to them from the back seat.

"Vampires nest in groups of eight to ten. Smaller packs are sent to hunt for food. Victims are taken to the nest where the pack keeps them alive, bleeding them for days or weeks... eeewww nasty!" I said.

"I wonder if that's what happened to that 911 couple." Dean said.

"That's probably what Dad's thinking. Of course it would be nice if he just told us what he thinks." Sam said grumpily, staring at the truck ahead of us.

"So it is starting," Dean said, starting at Sam.

"What?" Sam asked, glancing over at his brother.

"Sam, we been looking for Dad all year. Now we're not with him for more than a couple of hours and there's static already?" Dean said, looking frustrated.

"Hmph. No. Look, I'm happy he's ok, all right? And I'm happy that we're all working together again." Sam said, denying Dean's claim.

"Well good." Dean said, looking down at the book he'd been flipping through.

Sam didn't stop at that though. I watched it all unfold in front of me, kind of like watching a train crash.

"It's just... the way he treats us, like we're children!" Sam could barely contain his anger.

"Oh God..." Dean groaned, rolling his eyes.

"He barks orders at us Dean, he expects us to follow them without question. He keeps us on some crap, need to know deal." Sam was on a roll.

"He does what he does for a reason Sam." I said from the back seat, regretting getting involved almost as soon as I said it.

"What reason?" Sam asked with a glare.

"Our job!" Dean said loudly, eyes flashing angry. "There's no time to argue, there's no margin for error, all right? That's just the way the old man runs things."

"Yeah well maybe that worked when we were kids, but not any more, all right? Not after everything we've all been through Dean. I mean, are you telling me you're cool with just falling into line, letting him run the show?" He looked back at me for a second. "Beth, are you?"

"If that's what it takes." Dean responded quietly, giving Sam a long hard look. Sam looked betrayed, upset, we all knew he didn't like the way Dean and I just fell into line whenever John was around, but there was nothing to be said, that's just how it went.

We all fell silent. I really didn't want to be in the middle again. At the end of the day I owed my life to John, and he deserved my respect. He was also the only father I'd had for nearly ten years and I loved him. There was a certain reassuring calm having him around, I know Dean felt it too, like the world was just a little easier to bear, maybe it was just that it took the burden away from having to make the decisions ourselves.

Dean's phone rang after a time, it was John, giving him instructions.

"Yeah Dad. All right, got it." He hung up and looked at Sam. "Pull off at the next exit."

Sam's face was full of anger. "Why?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Because Dad thinks we've got the vampire's trail." Dean said looking ahead.

"How?!" Sam asked, getting angrier.

"I don't know, he didn't say." Dean said.

Sam put the accelerator to the floor and the Impala leaped ahead, his shoulders were squared and he gripped the wheel like he was about to join a demolition derby. Dean threw him a wide-eyed look like he was mad, and I felt my mouth hanging open as Sam overtook John's truck, slamming the breaks on and causing the Impala to swerve sideways in front of the truck, bringing us all to a halt.

"Jesus Sam!" I cried out, books that had been on my lap were strewn all about and I was a little freaked out. Sam ignored me, he was already out the door and striding down the road toward John, who was just as angry and getting out of his truck.

"Oh crap. Here we go..." Dean sighed getting out of the car. "Sam!"

I jumped out of the car and followed, heart beating a mile a minute, this was nothing new for Dean and I, but it was frustrating to go through, every time.

"What the hell was that?!" John shouted at Sam, still walking.

"We need to talk." Sam said steely.

"About what?" John asked, coming face to face with his youngest son. Dean threw me a look and I ran my hand across my face, we both walked quickly, ready to assume our roles as peace keepers.

"About everything." Sam said. "Where are we going Dad? What's the big deal about this job?"

"Sammy, come on, we can Q and A after we kill all the vampires." I put in quickly, trying to head off the fight.

"Your sister's right, we don't have time for this." John said, his eyes were fired up for a fight.

Sam didn't listen. "Last time we saw you, you said it was too _dangerous _for us to be together. Now out of the blue you need our help." He was getting louder as he talked. "_Obviously _something big is going down and we want to know what!" He finished, yelling at John. I grimaced.

John was calm, deadly calm and it was enough to still my heart.

"Get back in the car," he ordered Sam.

"No." Sam argued.

"I said get back in the damn car!" John said, this time more forcefully. Dean and I exchanged worried glances, he was biting his lip, not sure whether to jump into the argument or not.

"Yeah. And I said no." Sam said, standing his ground.

"All right, you made your point tough guy," Dean said, putting a hand against Sam's chest. "Look, we're all tired, we can talk about this later." He went to push Sam away, but he wouldn't move. "Sammy, I mean it, come on." Dean urged, grabbing Sam and pushing him back toward the car. Sam went with him, but he was staring at John.

"This is why I left in the first place." Sam mumbled angrily. I flinched, John bristled next to me.

"What did you say?" He asked stonily.

"You heard me." Sam said, swinging back toward his father.

"Yeah. You left. Your brother, your sister, and me, we needed you. You walked away." John said pushing Sam in the chest.

"Sam..." Dean cautioned, hand still against Sam's chest.

"You walked away!" John yelled, right in Sam's face.

"Stop it, both of you!" I cried out, stepping into the middle, placing my hands against John's chest.

Sam pushed against my back, nudging me against John.

"You're the one who said don't come back Dad, you're the one who closed that door not me. You were just _pissed off _that you couldn't control me any more!" Sam yelled back.

I pushed back at Sam too, now literally in the middle, Dean facing me with the same anxious look on his face.

"Listen, stop it, stop it. Dean, make them stop it." I said, upset, looking back between the two of them.

Dean frowned and stepped in, looking at Sam. "Stop it! That's enough!" Sam and John glared at each other over the two of us, almost oblivious to the fact that there was anyone else here other than them, anyone else who might get hurt.

"That means you too." Dean said, turning to John and giving him a bit of a push.

Sam turned and stormed back to the Impala, John hesitated and then turned toward his truck, leaving Dean and I standing in the middle, distressed. I wrapped my arms around his waist and leaned in to him, burying my head in his chest, I hated this, I hated the fighting, and it was never any different.

"Terrific!" Dean muttered, holding me and looking up to the night air.

* * *

**Vampire's Nest**

_**Next Morning**_

We'd tracked the vampires to their nest and we waiting out the passing of night into day. We were crouched in some trees where we could see the entrance to the nest – an old abandoned barn in the middle of nowhere. A beat up Camaro pulled up to the barn, and one of the vamps came to the door, shading his eyes from the sun. There was an exchange between him and the driver, and then the driver entered the nest.

"Son of a bitch." Dean said from beside me, looking at his father. "So they're really not afraid of the sun?"

"Direct sunlight hurts them like a nasty sunburn. The only way to kill them is by beheading." John answered. "And yeah, they sleep during the day, doesn't mean they won't wake up."

Dean smirked. "I guess walking right in's not our best option."

"Actually, that's the plan." John said with a grin.

We returned to the cars to get our weapons. Dean handed me one of the machetes and I unsheathed it, testing it's balance with a few forward swings. It'd been a while since we'd had to use this method, preferring our guns over unconventional weapons.

"Dad, I've got an extra machete if you need one." Dean called out to John. I looked over to see John removing a huge serrated machete from a leather sheath.

"I think I'm ok. Thanks." He grinned at us. I whistled appreciate of the machete.

"Wow.." Dean said in awe, staring.

"You know I think I have a birthday coming up sometime..." I winked at John, he laughed.

"I'll keep that in mind," came the reply.

John leaned against the back of his truck, obviously thinking about something, brooding. He stood like this for a few moments while I tied the machete sheath to the outside of my jeans, securing it against my outer thigh.

"So," John said, contemplative. "You kids really want to know about this colt?" Dean and Sam exchanged a glance, surprised.

"Yes sir," Sam answered without hesitation. John turned to look at us.

"It's just a story, legend really. Well I thought it was. Never really believed it until I read Daniel's letter..." He smirked and shook his head as if he still didn't believe it.

"Back in 1835, when Haley's comet was overhead, the same night those men died at the Alamo. They say Samuel Colt made a gun. A special gun. He made it for a hunter, a man like us only on horseback. Story goes he made thirteen bullets, and this hunter used the gun half a dozen times before he disappeared, the gun along with him. And somehow Daniel got his hands on it.."

We stared at him, not really comprehending the relevance of this story to our particular circumstances right now.

"They say... they say this gun can kill anything." John finished, looking at us.

"Kill anything like, supernatural anything?" Dean asked with a frown.

"Like the demon." Sam said, staring.

"Yeah, like the demon." John nodded. "Ever since I picked up it's trail I've been looking for a way to destroy that thing. Find the gun, we may have it."

The reality of what he'd just told us started to set in. Sam's face was haunted, tears brimming in his eyes. He'd just been given the one thing that might be able to avenge Mary's death, to get revenge for Jess. Dean looked a little more pensive, his eyes flicking to me and then back to John, he licked his lips which was always a give away that he felt a little unsure of where things were headed.

"You kids are big enough and old enough to know the truth, and that's it." John said, looking at each of us. We nodded, and no one spoke again, all lost in our own thoughts.

John turned and indicated that it was almost time for us to go and we shifted into hunter mode, pushing away all those emotions that had flooded to the surface.

John led the way, taking us to one of the barn windows. It wasn't locked, and was easily pushed in with no noise. John jumped through the window, and then Sam, followed by me and then Dean, all landing quietly on straw bales. Dean closed the shutters and we surveyed the room. There were at least half a dozen vampires sleeping in hammocks strewn about. It was quiet.

John had gone ahead, looking for the colt. Our mission was to see to the prisoners. We made our way through the barn slowly, quietly, Sam taking the lead, Dean bringing up the rear. I found myself holding my breath every time we passed a hammock, waiting to be seen or heard, and suddenly pounced by a vampire.

Dean accidentally kicked an empty bottle on the ground as he passed a hammock and it startled us all, he nearly backed up into the hammock itself. I froze, waiting, but the vampire didn't wake. Dean looked at me and blew out a sigh of relief, his eyes clearly showing the fright he'd just given himself, I blinked and eyes him off with a warning to be more careful.

"Beth!" I heard my named whispered and looked over at Sam who had come across a girl tied to the pole, she appeared to be sleeping or unconscious. He waved me over and I quietly headed toward him, Dean nodding that he was following. Sam started to untie the girl while we crouched nearby giving him back-up. Dean nodded toward a cage against the back wall, and headed toward it. There was a lock on the cage and I saw him grab a metal hook from nearby intending to use it to break the lock. He forced it up in one motion and we all looked around, alert for anyone who might have heard the noise. Nothing.

The girl tied to the pole started to stir and Sam looked at her urgently.

"Hey, hey, hey, shhh, I'm here to help you," he whispered.

The girl looked at Sam with incredible fear in her eyes and started to scream. It was a deep, unearthly scream not human. Sam stumbled back and I met him, looking around for Dean. The vampires all jumped to attention.

"Beth!" Dean called out to me, looking panicked.

We heard John's voice from the back of the barn yell to us. "Kids, run!" So we did, straight for the doors and into the sun. The vampires gave chase, but we hit the doors at a flat out run and kept on going, we didn't pause slow down until we reached our cars up on the embankment by the road.

"Dad?" Dean called, spinning around. "Dad!" We all looked around in the trees, thinking the worst, and then we saw John running through the trees to us. Dean turned me toward the car, making to leave as soon as we saw him. John called out to us.

"They won't follow. Not til tonight. Once a vampire has your scent, it's for life," he said. This was both a relief and a terrifying thought, depending on where you were standing. For now we were safe, but it wouldn't be daylight forever.

"Well what the hell do we do now?" Dean asked.

"You gotta find the nearest funeral home, that's what." John said without hesitation. I looked at him, confused, and then at Sam and Dean. They were just as confused as I was.

"Funeral home? Why?" I asked, frowning.

* * *

**Motel Room**

John had sent Dean alone. I didn't like it, but I didn't question him. Sam was pacing the room while I sat cross legged on the bed, flipping through Elkins' journal. The room was dark, not from lack of light, it was just one of those designs with log cabin walls that made the interior seem dark even if you had all the shades up. Which we didn't, so there was more than one reason it was so dreary grey.

"It shouldn't be taking this long. I should go help." Sam said, frustrated.

"Dean's got it." John said simply, glancing up at Sam from where he was seated at a desk, piles of notes and papers in front of him. His face softened and he leaned back a little in the chair he was sitting in.

"Sammy." This got Sam's attention.

"Yeah?" Sam asked, looking over.

"I don't think I ever told you this, but... the day you were born, you know what I did?" John asked, watching Sam inquisitively.

"No." Sam asked, shaking his head.

"I put $100 into a savings account for you. I did the same thing for your brother," he said with a smile. "It was a college fund. And every month I put in another $100 until..." He paused, gesturing in the air, the unspoken reason hanging between us all... _until Mary. _Sam had stopped moving and was staring at his father.

"Anyway, my point is Sam that, this is never the life that I wanted for you." He finished.

"Then why'd you get so mad when I left?" Sam asked quietly.

"You gotta understand something," John said, looking resigned. "After your mother passed, all I saw was evil, everywhere. And all I cared about was keeping you boys alive. I wanted you... prepared. Ready. Except somewhere along the line I... uh... I stopped being your father and I... I became your drill sargent." Sam smirked and nodded agreement, moving closer to his father as he listened.

"So when you said that you wanted to go away to school, all I could think about, my only thought was, that you were gonna be alone." Sam sat down on the chair opposite the desk, staring at John. "I mean... that's why I took Beth with me, after her father." I glanced up at this and saw he was looking at me. "Patrick was one of my oldest friends, I couldn't leave his daughter to an uncertain fate. She was all alone. She was vulnerable, and my responsibility."

"And when you said you wanted to leave, all I could think was that _you'd_ be vulnerable." John continued. "Sammy it just... it never occurred to me what you wanted. I just couldn't accept the fact that you and me, we're just different." He had tears in his eyes.

Sam huffed a bit, tears in his own eyes.

"What?" John asked.

"We're not different." Sam said quietly. "Not any more. With what happened to Mom and Jess..." Sam laughed at the irony. "Well we probably have a lot more in common than just about anyone."

John smiled, looking at Sam affectionately. "I guess you're right son."

I got up from the bed and crossed the room to the coffee pot. The two of them were looking at each other and I smiled, glad they were bonding again. When they looked away and started to move again, I leaned against the wall, smiling.

"Hey Dad?" I asked, and John looked up at me inquisitively. "Whatever happened to those college funds?"

John smiled at me, then Sam. "I spent it on ammo." He said quietly, seriously, before his face broke into a large smile and we all laughed at the irony of the situation.

Dean entered, looking at us a little oddly because we were laughing, and then shrugged.

"Whew! Man, some heavy security to protect a bunch of dead guys," he said, shaking his head.

"Get it?" John asked, looking at him.

Dean felt around in his pocket, pulling out a paper back and revealing it's contents, a large jar full of blood. He handed it to John, who held it, feeling the sloshing of the liquid inside.

John looked at us all and nodded. "You know what to do."

* * *

**Along the Highway near the Nest**

It was dark. I watched Dean leaning over the open hood of the Impala, looking at the engine, and swallowed hard. The crossbow in my hands felt heavy, firm, and comforting.

"Car trouble?" A voice sounded and we saw a woman advancing on Dean, no car, just her. Dean turned to face her and I wondered at the angle.

"Let me give you a lift. I'll take you to my place." She said suggestively to Dean.

Dean grinned at her and replied. "Nah I'll pass. I usually draw the line at necrophilia."

"Oooh." The woman said, amused, then she backhanded Dean, knocking him to the ground. Another vampire came to join her, and she leaned down grabbing Dean's face and lifting him clear off his feet into the air. I gulped, she was strong.

Dean grunted, grabbing her wrist, but not struggling. "I don't usually get this friendly until the second date, but..." He rolled his eyes at her. I forced myself to breath, to keep myself calm, and waited for John's signal.

The vampire holding Dean looked at him appreciatively, and smiled. "You know we could have some fun. I always like to make new friends," she said, lowering him to face her, leaning in and kissing him while still holding him tightly by his cheeks. The other vampire watched, smiling. I narrowed my eyes, seeing Sam glance at me worriedly. I shook my head, letting him know I was fine, cool calm and collected. But I was so going to kill that bitch when I had the chance. I readied the bow at my shoulder, waiting, aimed and alert.

"Sorry." Dean said with a raised eyebrow. "I don't usually stay with a chick that long. Definitely not eternity."

John dropped his hand signalling the attack. Sam and I both loosed our arrows at our targets. Mine rang true, hitting the woman in the back and piercing all the way to the front. She grunted and dropped Dean, turning to face our direction.

"Damn it," she muttered, looking at the arrow protruding out of her chest, as John, Sam and I emerged from the trees carrying our crossbows.

"It barely even stings," the woman smirked at John as he reached Dean.

"Give it time sweetheart. That arrow's soaked in dead man's blood. It's like poison to you isn't it?" He asked with a grin. The look on her face showed us we were right; she looked shocked, and then wavered, falling into Dean's arms as she passed out.

"Load her up." John said to Dean. "I'll take care of this one," gesturing to the male. The vampire was sitting stunned on the ground, and without so much as a question, John raised his machete, bringing it down and severing the vampire's head from it's shoulders, I flinched as blood sprayed everywhere, _gross. _

* * *

**Woods**

We'd made a campfire and were in the woods, Sam and I were on patrol with our machetes for any vampires that might have picked up our scent. I watched as John handed Dean a bag from the Impala, and they returned to the fire.

"Toss this on the fire." John said with a gesture toward the flames. "Saffron, skunk's cabbage and trillium. It'll block our scent and hers, until we're ready."

Dean sniffed the mixture and gagged. "This stuff stinks!" He exclaimed with a grimace.

"That's the idea," John said chuckling. "Dust your clothes with the ashes and you stand a chance of not being detected."

"You sure they'll come after her?" I asked, casting a wary gaze over the vampire who was tied to the tree on the other side of the fire.

"Yeah," John said to me. "Vampires mate for life. She means more to the leader than the gun. But the blood sickness is going to wear off soon, so you don't have a lot of time."

"A half hour ought to do it." Sam said, coming up beside me.

"And then I want you all out of the area as fast as you can." John ordered us.

"But..." Sam argued.

"Dad, you can't take care of them all." Dean chimed in, getting a surprised look from us all.

"I'll have her, and the colt." John said.

"But after. We're going to meet up right? Use the gun together. Right?" Sam asked. His question was met with a long silence, no one spoke.

"You're leaving again, aren't you?" Sam asked sadly. "You still want to go after the demon alone." His sadness faded to frustration and anger. "You know, I don't get you. You can't treat us like this!"

"Like what?" John asked.

"Like children." Sam said angrily.

"_You are my children! _I'm trying to keep you safe." John countered.

"Dad, all due respect but, that's a bunch of crap." Dean said and my mouth nearly hit the ground, he didn't really looked convinced of his own statement, but it was out there now. This was new. I wasn't the only one to turn and look Dean in shock, Sam and John were too.

"Excuse me?" John asked, taken aback at Dean's attitude.

"You know what, Sammy, Beth and I have been hunting. Hell you sent us on a few hunting trips yourself. You can't be that worried about keeping us safe." Dean said, crossing his arms.

"It's not the same thing Dean." John said, shaking his head.

"Then what is it? Why do you want us out of the big fight?" Dean asked.

"This demon? It's a bad son of a bitch. I can't make the same moves if I'm worried about keeping you alive." John said.

"You mean you can't be as reckless," I chimed in, unhappy. John paused to look at me, his eyes fading from angry to gentle, tears brimming.

"Look..." He said, reaching out to rest a hand on my arm. "I don't expect to make it out of this fight in one piece." He looked at the boys. "Your mother's death, it almost killed me. I can't watch my children die too, I won't."

"What happens if you die?" Dean asked. "Dad what happens if you die and we could have done something about it?" John looked down, not answering.

"You know I've been thinking. I... maybe Sammy's right about this one. We should do this together." Dean said.

Sam nodded, I didn't trust my own voice to speak.

"We're stronger as a family Dad. We just are. You know it." Dean finished, trying to get through to John.

John sighed. "We're running out of time. You do your job, all of you, and you get out of the area. That's an order!" He dropped his arm and I looked down at my hands, fighting back my impulse to argue. We had an order. I looked over at Dean and he looked conflicted, looking at the ground angry; I sighed.

* * *

**Vampire Nest**

We waited for the head vampire to leave, following the scent of his mate in John's truck, before we crept toward the barn, unnoticed.

There was a lone vampire outside, taking a swig of something from a bottle. Dean moved in toward him and with one swing of his machete, the vampire was beheaded. He never even saw it coming.

We moved into the barn, our target to get to the contained of people at the back. The barn was deserted, the other vampires had all left with the lead vampire, this was our lucky night.

Dean grinned at the people in the container. "Told you I'd come back," he said with a smile, taking out a screwdriver and breaking the hinges off the container.

When we'd seen them to a car, and got them on the road to safety I returned to the Impala, hesitating. Dean came up and loaded the crossbow.

"OK, come on." He said to both me and Sam, we looked at him questioningly.

"We're going." He said and Sam shook his head stubbornly.

Dean paused and sighed. "We're going to get _Dad..." _he said this time, and earned a smile from both of us, we hurried and jumped in the car. It was rare, but occasionally, just sometimes Dean disobeyed orders, this was going to be one of those times.

They didn't smell us, how I don't know, but we approached down wind as best we could. There were a handful of vampires around now, we kept to the trees, our crossbows ready to go, machetes in their sheaths tied to our legs.

There was a stand off happening between John and the leader of the vampires. They were arguing about the colt, and John's plan.

"Put the cold down, or she goes first." I heard John say, watching from my perch up in a tree.

"All right. Just don't hurt her." The vampire said, lowering the colt to the ground.

"Back up." John instructed. "Further." The vampire moved away from John, hands in the air.

John dragged the female vampire forward and held her at knife point as he leaned down to pick up the gun.

"It's a nice move, you almost made it," came the voice of the leader and I swallowed. _What did he mean by that?_

The female suddenly swung around, loose from her bonds, and knocked John against the truck. He dropped the gun. The leader approached him and I fought to keep my breathing still, concentrating, waiting for the moment.

The leader backhanded John, sending him flying against the truck's open door, glass shattered upon impact and John landed on the ground, unconscious. The leader moved in on him and I saw Dean nod out of the corner of my eye. I loosed an arrow on one of the female vampires nearby, hitting her dead centre in the gut and jumped down to the ground.

Sam and Dean ran into the open from the trees, Dean paused to line up and shoot another vampire with his crossbow. Sam moved toward the leader who backhanded him, sending him flying into a tree. I ran in behind, lining up another shot with the crossbow as Dean unsheathed his machete, but the leader moved with a speed that was faster than expected.

Suddenly I was seeing stars as he had me around the throat in a head lock, pulled tightly against him. I dropped the crossbow and grasped at his hands, fighting for breath.

"Don't!" The leader said to Dean, who had frozen mid stride with his machete. "I'll break her neck. Put the blade down."

For a moment Dean did nothing, staring at us – I knew he was weighing up the odds of attacking and being fast enough without any harm coming to me. Then I felt my air supply being cut off completely as the arm tightened on my neck, I gasped for breath and Dean's jaw twitched, his eyes showing a momentary panic. He reached out a free hand to the vampire and moved to lie the machete down on the ground.

"You people." The leader said, loosening his grip on me just a little. "Why can't you leave us alone. We have as much right to live as you do."

"I don't think so." John said from behind us. The vampire spun us around, and I heard the sound of a gunshot. Then I was stumbling to the ground, gasping for breath as the vampire let go of me. Dean grabbed me in his arms and pulled me behind him, I held on to his hips, putting him between me and the vampire.

A brief flash of light flickered across the vampire, and it was like seeing his skeleton, while he fell to his knees.

"Luther!" The woman vampire cried out, seeing her mate fall.

Another flash of light passed through Luther and he fell to the ground, dead.

The woman moved toward John in fury, but another vampire grabbed her, pulling her away to their car. She fought with her, but relented, getting in the car and leaving before we could give chase.

John paused to look at the vampire, now dead, and frowned. "No one hurts my little girl." He said quietly before turning to look at me.

Sam snorted, relief in his eyes. "She's not so little Dad."

"Thank god for that," Dean muttered, looking back at me in relief.

"She is to me." John said, pulling me into a hug.

* * *

**Motel Room**

_**A short time later**_

We were packing, and I had to say that I wasn't going to be sorry to see the back of this part of the country. Dean hovered near me, glancing over at me as I packed. I looked at him, a smile in my eye telling him I appreciated his concern. He reached out and softly touched the bruising on my neck where the vampire had gripped me, he looked conflicted: angry and helpless at the same time, knowing how close we'd come that time.

I reached up to grasp his hand, turning it to face up and placing a kiss on his palm. "I'm ok." I said softly, he nodded before dropping his hand and zipping up his bag.

John entered the room, watching us all packing, we did it with efficiency and ease, an old routine with deep, worn grooves.

"So kids." John said eventually, and we looked up, turning to face him.

"Yes, sir." Sam said, glancing back at us.

"You ignored a direct order back there." He said, looking at each of us in turn. I swallowed hard.

"Yes, sir." Sam said, nodding.

"Yeah, but we save

* * *

d your ass." Dean quipped, I raised an eyebrow at this new attitude of his, I think I liked it. Dean's jaw was clenched, he was resolute in his comment to John.

"You're right." John admitted, much to our surprise.

"I am?" Dean asked, looking puzzled.

"It scares the hell out of me. You kids are all I've got. But I guess we are stronger as a family." He said with a smile. "So... let's go after this damn thing. Together."

"Yes, sir!" We all said in unison, which earned a laugh from John. We were a family again. Time to act like one. We all looked at each other, hardly daring to believe what he'd just said, then we looked back at him – Sam looked happy, pleased that his father had finally included us, Dean looked satisfied with the decision. Me I was just thankful that for once we weren't all arguing about the next step, we knew what the new target was, and we knew how to kill it. Game on.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

* * *

_So I'm leaning toward_

_(1) The Devil's Road Map, or_

_(2) All Hell Breaks Loose_

_for the title of Season 2's story. It's all I've been able to come up with in my sleep deprived state. Would love some feedback from anyone on suggestions, or if they have an alternative that would be good too! :D_

* * *

_The song for this chapter is: **Chasing the Sun ****by The Wanted.** Fun, upbeat, and has a hopeful beat to it, which is how I felt when this chapter finished. Plus how can you have a vampire episode and not have a song with the sun in it?_

_I totally found Dean & Beth's "song" today too: It's perfect. Look up **Your Guardian Angel ****by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus**. I know which episode it's for too, but not until Season 3... Oh 3 Would love to hear any other suggestions too, I could use a little bit of a love song playlist for these guys! **Bless the broken road ****by Rascal Flatts **is pretty cool too, a little corny though. I just like the broken road analogy._

* * *

_I was reading the transcripts for the next two episodes as we enter endgame for the season today. I just love them! I'm so looking forward to writing in Beth to them :)_

* * *

_It's been a little quiet around here though – where did everyone go?! Hope I haven't driven anyone off with terrible writing and plots :D_

_Thanks to everyone who does take the time to review and let me know you like the story :D_

* * *

_PS. I got the job! Pretty pleased with that. Won't slow down updates for the immediate future, but I may end up going every few days instead of daily once I'm into the full routine – it's only 3 days a week, which suits me just fine, but yeah, I don't know how that's going to affect me just yet having been home with the baby for 2 years now!_


	20. Salvation

_Define your meaning of war__  
__To me it's what we do when we're bored__  
__I feel the heat comin' off of the blacktop__  
__And it makes me want it more__  
__Because I'm hyped up out of control__  
__If it's a fight, I'm ready to go__  
__I wouldn't put my money on the other guy__  
__If you know what I know that I know_

_It's been a long time coming__  
__And the table's turned around__  
__'Cause one of us is going__  
__One of us is going down__  
__I'm not running,__  
__It's a little different now__  
__'Cause one of us is going__  
__One of us is going down_

* * *

**SALVATION**

* * *

**Motel Room  
Manning, Colorado**

It'd been a week since John had rejoined us. We'd arrived a few days earlier to a motel room John had obviously been renting for some time. It looked like home to me. The walls were covered in research on the demon John had been hunting all this time, the one that had killed Mary.

There were weather charts, maps, hieroglyphs, photos, newspaper articles, pictures from books, pages and pages of John's handwritten notes... on the shelf nearby, more books. I gazed at the stuffed bust of a deer hanging on the wall, peeking out from all this, and chuckled at the idea that the deer looked out of place.

John was sitting at the desk, more research strewn in front of him, the colt perched on top. Sam and Dean paced around the room while I lay sprawled across the bed on my stomach.

"So this is it," John said with a gesture around the room. "This is everything I know. Look, our whole lives we've been searching for this demon right? Not a trace, just... nothing. Until about a year ago. For the first time I picked up a trail."

Dean stopped in front of the desk. "And that's when you took off," he said, giving me a meaningful look. I felt my mouth twitch, that's when everything had changed.

"Yeah. That's right. The demon must have come out of hiding, or hibernation," John said with a nod.

"All right, so what's this trail you found?" Dean asked, all business. He was focused and quiet, always a sign that there was more going on beneath the surface than he wanted to let on.

"It starts in Arizona, then New Jersey... California. Houses burned to the ground. It's going after families, just like it went after us." John announced.

"Families with infants?" Sam asked, leaning back against the kitchen counter.

"Yeah. The night of the kid's six-month birthday," John informed us.

"I was six months old that night?" Sam asked, curious.

"Exactly six months," John confirmed. Sam's face washed over with a mix of emotions, anger, sadness... guilt. I sat up and crossed my legs, looking over at him, concerned.

"So basically, this demon is going after these kids for some reason. The same way it came for me?" He looked at John, who glanced away, raising his hand to his mouth as he thought about that night.

"So... Mom's death... Jessica. It's all because of me?" Sam asked with a mournful look.

"We don't know that Sam." I said gently. Sam turned angry eyes to me.

"Oh really? Cause I'd say we're pretty damn sure Beth!" He said loudly at me.

Dean looked at Sam, frustration in his eyes. "For the last time, what happened to them was _not your fault," _he said.

"Yeah, you're right. It's not my fault but it's my problem!" Sam said loudly turning on his brother.

"No it's not your problem, it's _our problem!" _Dean fumed.

John stood up. "OK. That's enough." He ordered us, and both Dean and Sam took a deep breath, forcing themselves to calm down.

Sam shook his head. "So why's he doing it? What does he want?"

"Look, I wish I had more answers, I do," John said. "I've always been one step behind it. Look, I've never gotten there in time to save..." His face fell and looked down, unhappy. _He'd never made it in time to save the mothers._ That had to be particularly hard.

Dean was looking at John, thinking, planning. "All right, so how do we find it... before it hits again."

"There's signs," John said, gesturing to the research pinned to the walls. "It took me a while to see the pattern but the days before these fires, signs crop up in an area. Cattle deaths, temperature fluctuations, electrical storms. And then I went back and checked... and..."

"These things happened in Lawrence." Dean finished for him. John nodded solemnly.

"A week before your mother's death. And in Palo Alto... before Jessica." Sam looked grieved, like he was barely holding it together. "And these signs, they're starting again." John finished, looking down.

"Where?" I asked quietly, he looked over at me, like he'd forgotten I was still there.

"Salvation, Iowa," came the reply.

* * *

We were half an hour out of Salvation, I had decided to ride with John in his truck for a change of scenery, he seemed pleased to have me with him. As the truck raced along the highway toward town, I stared out the window at the empty fields, endless flat lands. It had been raining, and everything felt grey and dull.

John's phone rang and he answered it, one hand on the wheel, he didn't slow down. There was a brief conversation which didn't sound good and then he hung up, pulling off to the side of the road. I looked at him curious.

"What's wrong?" I asked and he looked at me haunted.

"Son of a bitch!" He cursed, getting out of the truck. Dean had pulled in behind us and the boys were getting out of the Impala, confused.

"What is it?" Dean called out, walking up to meet us.

I rounded the truck to where John was now facing the boys.

"I just got a call from Caleb." He announced.

"Is he ok?" Dean asked, concerned.

"He's fine." John said nodding. He looked down at his feet, then up at me, sorrow in his eyes. "Jim Murphy's dead."

I felt my heart sink, Dean stared, his mouth dropping.

"Pastor Jim?" Sam asked, shocked. John nodded.

"How?" I asked, barely getting the word out.

John blew out a long breath, calming himself.

"His throat was slashed. He bled out. Caleb said they found traces of sulphur at his place." He looked at me again, worried, and I felt the blood drain from my face.

"A demon." Dean asked, and John nodded.

"_The _Demon?" Dean wanted to know.

"I don't know. Could be he just got careless, he slipped up. Maybe the demon knows we're getting close." John said and I was shaking my head, not believing what I was hearing.

"No... no no no no no." I said, stepping away from them. "No, that's sacred ground, _that's hallowed ground." _I'd walked those grounds, the chapel, a hundred or more times. I couldn't get my thoughts straight. Dean stepped toward me, reaching out and I held up my hand.

"That place is demon proof, you tell me how a demon could get to him." I was finding it hard to breathe, the ramifications of what had just been said settling on me like a wet blanket.

"Beth..." Dean said, coming over and taking my arms in his hands, turning me to face him. I looked up at the sky, fighting off tears. I shook my head to clear it and his eyes caught mine, worried.

I looked over at John and he was watching us, there was concern in his eyes, but at the same time there was an assessing look there too, we had to full ourselves together, we had to do our job, we could face the reality of how we were feeling later, but for now... I had to be in the game. I took a deep breath, centring myself.

"What do you want to do?" I asked, resigned, we had a job to do.

John nodded at me with approval, like I'd just passed some test. "Now we act like every second counts," he said, looking at the three of us.

"There's two hospitals and a health centre in this county. We split up to cover more ground. I want records. I want a list of every infant that's going to be six months old in the next week," his voice was calm, and determined, like he had it all worked out. I wished I felt that way.

Dean was still looking at me, and I sighed, allowing myself to step into his arms for a hug.

"Dad, that could be dozens of kids. How do we know which one's the right one?" Sam asked, frowning.

"We check them all, that's how. You got any better ideas?" John asked, ignoring Dean and I for the moment.

"No sir," Sam said, resigned.

John nodded and I pulled away from Dean with a small smile, he looked at me sadly, still resting his hand on my back. John had paused, leaning on the trunk of his car.

"Dad?" Dean asked hesitantly.

John looked back at him, standing up. There were tears in his eyes.

"Yeah. It's Jim. You know... I can't..." He took a deep breath and I felt the tears building in my eyes too. He looked at me for a long moment and then took the few steps to place his hands on my shoulders, looking down at me.

"I'm sorry Beth," He said, pausing to look at me. "I know you spent a lot of time with him as a kid... more than the boys even." I nodded sadly, Jim had been like an uncle to me when my Dad became obsessed with his other work after Mom had died. I hadn't realised at the time, but my love of scripture, of arcane Christian lore and mythology, it all came from Pastor Jim. Now he was dead. It was surreal, as if a bad dream. I hadn't even had a chance to talk to him about this newfound demon sense I had.

"This ends, now." John said resolutely. "I promise. I'm ending it. I don't care what it takes." I nodded, my eyes wide.

Dean hesitated before heading back to the Impala, I smiled at him and waved him off. I decided to get back in the truck with John. I knew he'd leave me to my thoughts, whereas the boys would probably try and talk, comfort me in some way. I didn't want that. I wanted to stuff it all down, bury it, and feed off it. We'd all just suffered a terrible, terrible loss, we needed to use it, to fight off the all consuming emptiness at the door.

**Salvation, Iowa**

John, Sam and Dean went to get the information, I decided to wait in the car. Sam and I had taken the Impala to the Medical Centre and would meet up with Dean later at the motel. I had a map spread out on the hood of the car, it was a big town, spread out over a large distance. Tracking all these babies and investigating them all wasn't going to be an easy task.

I saw Sam come out of the Medical Centre, he was flipping through his notebook as he walked, deep in thought. Suddenly he clutched his head, and stopped walking. _A vision. _A few seconds and it had obviously passed, Sam was looking around confused when I reached him.

"Sam! Are you all right?" I asked, looking at him.

"Map!" He said, and I nodded, pulling him back to the car. He was looking the map over, looking for train tracks because he'd heard a train in his vision.

"It was the demon Beth, it was in the room with her, and a baby. I heard a train..." I marked the only train track running through town in red pen, and he nodded, but we both knew it without saying, it was a long shot, it was miles of track. Just the same, I circled some potential areas of residential homes along the track, where they would be close enough to hear the train as it passed.

Sam nodded at me, and pointed to a park nearby. On the other side was the tracks and a housing development. "Let's start here." I nodded. I parked the Impala in the parking lot, and then we made our way to the other side of the park. We were half walking half jogging through the park, Sam looking around for anything that looked familiar from his vision when the second vision hit.

"Gah!" Sam cried out again, putting his hand over his eyes. I watched, helpless as he looked to the sky, and then over at me. He shook himself, and ran a hand across his face, I watched, worried sick.

"I don't believe it..." He muttered suddenly, looking like he was seeing a ghost.

"What? What Sam?" I asked, confused.

"There..." He pointed at the house opposite the park.

"That's the house from the vision," he explained and I frowned.

"Are you sure?" I questioned.

"Yeah, yeah I'm sure... in fact...," he gulped, staring at a woman who was pushing a pram along the side walk, "that's the woman..."

I spun around, looking. The woman was struggling to juggle both the umbrella she was holding and to push the pram. Sam and I crossed the road toward her when she stopped to battle with the umbrella.

"Hi. Here, let me hold that for you," Sam said, taking the pram's handle and she looked at him in surprise. "You look like you don't need that any more..." He smiled his big disarming smile at the girl and she laughed.

"Oh thanks." She said, smiling and nodding, letting him hold the pram while she folded down the umbrella.

I slipped my arm around Sam's waist and peered inside the pram.

"She's gorgeous. Is she yours?" I asked, flashing her my own smile.

"Yeah," the woman replied looking proud.

"Oh wow, hi!" Sam said to the baby. The woman watched us cooing over her baby with a smile.

"Oh sorry, we're being rude. I'm Beth, this is Sam." I said, holding my hand out to the woman. "We just moved in up the block." Sam smiled and put his arm around me, pulling me in to him like a loving couple.

"Oh hey, I'm Monica," the woman said shaking my hand, "this is Rosie."

"Rosie? Hi Rosie," I gushed over the baby.

"So, welcome to the neighbourhood. Do you guys have kids?" Monica asked.

We looked at each other and laughed a little. "Uh, no, no kids yet." I smiled at her, and she nodded.

"Well, plenty of time, you're still young." We nodded, turning our attention to her.

"Yeah. Yeah that's right." Sam said, he looked down at Rosie. "Wow, she's such a good baby!"

"I know, I mean she... she never cries. She just stares at everybody. Sometimes she looks at you and I swear it's... it's like she's reading your mind." Sam's smile looked troubled at that comment.

"What about you Monica? Have you lived here long?" I asked, changing the subject.

"My husband and I, we bought our place just before Rosie was born." She said with a smile, nodding at the house next to us.

"And how old's Rosie?" Sam asked.

"She's six months today." I felt Sam stiffen beside me. "She's big right? Growing like a weed." Monica laughed.

Sam was distracted, so I laughed with her and murmured agreement.

"Well, we need to get going, don't we Sam?" I said, looking pointedly at him.

"Yeah... ahhh, take care of yourself Monica, ok?" Sam said, smiling now.

"Yeah, you too Sam, Beth. We'll see you around." She pushed the pram on toward the house and I crossed the road with Sam again, we both watched as a car pulled into the driveway and Monica greeted the driver, her husband, they both smiled and chatted away to the baby.

Sam stumbled a little bit, leaning into me, hand against his forehead as he gasped from the pain of another vision. I put my hand on his back and waited for it to pass.

"Sam, Sam, come on, let's get you back to the motel." I said, and he leaned heavily on me. He was still clutching his head as I drove us back to the motel.

**Motel Room**

Sam still had a headache half an hour later. I poured him some water from the tap and opened some ibuprofen for him, I sat next to at the table and put the tablets in his hand, looking him over, he was a mess. He took the pills and swallowed them with a gulp of water, nodding his appreciation at me.

Dean and John were sitting on the ends of the beds in the room, watching him.

"A vision?" John said flatly, taking in what we'd just told him about what Sam had seen.

"Yes." Sam said with a grimace. "I saw the demon burning a woman on the ceiling."

"And you think this is going to happen to this woman you met because...?" John wasn't up to speed on the whole psychic Sam thing, I found myself a little surprised at that, but then, it hadn't really come up.

"Because these things happen exactly the way I see them." Sam said, looking at his father.

I looked over at John, who was watching us closely. "It started out as nightmares. Then it started happening while he was awake." I explained.

Dean stood up from the bed, crossing to the coffee pot to refresh the mug in his hands.

"Yeah," Sam said, wincing at the pain in his head. "It's like the closer I get to anything to do with the demon, the stronger the visions get."

John sighed. "All right. When were you going to tell me about this?" He asked, looking at Dean's back.

Dean stopped what he was doing and looked up at his father.

"We didn't know what it meant." He said.

"What? You told me about Beth! All right, something like this starts happening to your brother, you pick up the phone and you call me." John said angrily to Dean.

Dean dumped the coffee pot back on the counter and walked toward John, anger flashing in his eyes.

"Call you?! Are you kidding me Dad? Dad I called you from Lawrence, all right? And you didn't even bother to talk to me, instead you made _Beth _keep it a _secret _when she stumbled across you." I flinched, but Dean wasn't done. "And Beth, and Sam, they called you when I was dying, where were you then? You know about Beth's demon sense thing because _you were there Dad! _This vision thing of Sam's hasn't happened for months, _months! _I mean, getting you on the phone?" Dean paused to look at his father, throwing his hands up in the air. "I got a better chance of winning the lottery, Dad."

John said nothing, just stared at Dean for a moment who was standing in the middle of the room, bristling. Sam and I glanced at each other and then back at them, I closed my eyes and sighed softly.

"You're right." John said softly, looking up at Dean, who gaped. "Although I'm not too crazy about this new tone of yours... you're right. I'm sorry." We all were a bit taken aback at this apology, John never apologised, even if he was wrong, and especially not when Dean was the one calling him out on it.

"Look guys, visions or no visions, fact is, we know the demon is coming tonight." Sam said, breaking the silence. "And this family's gonna go through the same hell we went through."

"No they're not." John said with a shake of his head. "No one is, ever again."

Sam's phone rang and we all glanced at it curiously.

"Expecting a call?" I asked, moving to pour myself a cup of coffee, and he shook his head at me.

"Hello?" Sam said, answering the call, "who is this?" He asked after a pause.

We watched him, curious.

"Meg." Sam said suddenly, and I startled, turning to face Sam.

"Last time I saw you, you fell out of a window." He said, switching the phone to speaker phone, we all gathered close to listen.

"_Yeah, no thanks to you. That really hurt my feelings by the way." _Meg's voice purred over the line.

"Just your feelings?" Sam asked, eyes flashing. "That was a seven-storey drop."

"_Let me speak to your Dad." _Meg said, changing the subject. We looked over at him and he shook his head.

"My Dad. I don't know where my Dad is." Sam said, playing along.

"_It's time for the grown ups to talk Sam, let me speak to him now." _She commanded. Sam hesitated, and then John gestured for the phone. He put it on the table between us all, but sat the closest.

"This is John," he told the woman on the other end.

"_Howdy John. I'm Meg. I'm a friend of your kids'. I'm also the one who watched Jim Murphy choke on his own blood..." _John looked up and I nearly dropped my mug. My stomach was churning and I had a moment to wonder if it was from the reference to Jim, or if there was something more to it. Could my demon sense work over the phone?

"_Still there John-boy?" _Came a question.

"I'm here." John said flatly.

"_Well the as yesterday. Today I'm in Lincoln. Visiting another old friend of yours. He wants to say hi..." _There was the sound of the phone being placed against someone's ear.

"_John, whatever you do don't give..." _the man's voice was cut short at Meg pulled the phone away from him, shushing.

"Caleb?" John asked, stunned. We were instantly on alert, this wasn't good.

"You listen to me. He's got nothing to do with anything. You let him go." John tried to reason with her, but we all knew that it wouldn't make a difference.

"_We know you have the colt, John." _Meg's voice sung across the line.

"I don't know what you're talking about it." John bluffed.

"_Oh, ok. Well listen to this." _Another pause and then there was the sickening sound of someone gasping and drowning in their own blood. I put my hands over my face, taking deep, long breaths.

"Caleb. Caleb!" John yelled at the phone.

"_You hear that? That's the sound of your friend dying. Now let's try this again... We know you have the fun John, word travels fast. So as far as we're concerned you just declared war. And this is what war looks like. It has casualties." _Meg had the upper hand, and she knew it.

"I'm going to kill you, you know that?" John threatened, his voice scarily steady.

"_Oh John please, mind your blood pressure. So this is the thing. We're going to keep doing what we're doing. And your friends, anyone who has ever helped you, gave you shelter, anyone you ever loved. They'll all die unless you give us that gun." _She wasn't bluffing, I could feel it in my stomach, and I could see the others thought the same way.

John went quiet, thinking. We all waited for his lead.

"_I'm waiting Johnny, better answer before the buzzer." _

"OK." John said finally, resigned.

"_Sorry? I didn't quite get that." _Meg said, taunting.

"I said ok, I'll bring you the colt." John said with a sigh.

"_There's a warehouse in Lincoln, on the corner of Wabash and Lake. You're gonna meet me there." _She instructed.

"It's gonna take me about a days drive to get there." John said, trying to buy time.

"_Meet me there at midnight tonight." _She said.

"That's impossible. I can't get there in time and I can't just carry a gun on the plane." John said, frowning.

"_Oh. Well I guess your friends die don't they? If you do decide to make it, come alone." _She hung up, leaving us all to stare at each other, stunned and I'll admit I was more than scared, there were a lot of people out there who had some contact with us, who were our friends, and they had suddenly just found themselves on the demon's most wanted list.

"Do you think Meg is a demon?" Sam asked finally, breaking the silence.

"Either that, or she's possessed by one. It doesn't really matter." John said looking at the colt.

"She's possessed." I said quietly and they all looked at me. I felt my stomach, put my hand against it.

"I felt it," I said, "In Chicago. I didn't know what it meant at the time, it was different to the other demons. But it was there. I can feel it now too, I can't explain it."

John nodded, thinking this through.

"What do we do?" Dean asked.

"I'm going to Lincoln." John said, standing up.

"What?" Dean exclaimed, looking at his father like he was mad.

"It doesn't look like we have a choice. If I don't go, a lot of people die, our friends die." He said, looking at each of us in turn.

"Dad, the demon is coming tonight. For Monica and her family. That gun is all we got, you can't just hand it over." Sam said, for once the voice of reason.

"Who said anything about handing it over?" John asked with a smile, and when we looked at him confused, he explained. "Look, besides us and a couple of vampires, no one really has seen the gun, no one knows what it looks like."

"So you want to pick up a ringer at a pawn shop?" I asked, frowning.

"Antique store." John specified.

"You're going to hand Meg a fake gun and hope she doesn't notice?" Dean voiced his disbelief.

"As long as it's close, she shouldn't be able to tell the difference." John said.

"Yeah, but for how long?" I asked. "What happens when she figures it out?"

"I just... I just need to buy a few hours, that's all." John said, looking at us sadly.

"You mean for us." Sam said quietly, tears in his eyes. Dean turned a stunned look to Sam. "You want us to stay here, and kill this demon by ourselves?" Sam asked.

"No Sam." John said with a sigh, standing to pace. "I want to stop losing people we love." He ran a hand through his hair and smiled sadly at us all. "I want you to go to school... I want Dean and Beth to have a home, a chance at a family... I want... I want Mary alive." He fought back tears and we looked on, stunned.

"It's just... I just want this to be over." He said. I sighed, and walked around the boys to give him a hug, this was my Dad, and I loved him, hard as he was on us. It hadn't been easy on him admitting what he'd just said, it was almost as if he was saying good bye. Likely he was.

**Muddy Back Road**

Dean eased the Impala down the muddy road, slowly, he didn't seem to be in any hurry whatsoever. Before we even got to John's truck he stopped.

"You ok?" I asked, looking over at him. He bent down to rest his head on the steering wheel, letting out a sigh.

"Are we doing the right thing Beth? Letting Dad go off on his own?" He asked, not moving.

I reached out to lay my hand on the back of his neck, a heavy heart inside of me.

"I don't know Dean. But what choice do we have?" I asked.

"I could go with him. You and Sam could handle the demon." He suggested, looking at me. I raised an eyebrow.

"Did you just hear yourself then?" I asked with a smile, and he chuckled softly.

"Yeah, I know." Dean said.

"I'm surprised I haven't been tied up and tossed in the trunk yet to keep me from coming along." I admitted with a smirk.

"Don't worry, I've thought about it." He laughed. "But I need access to the weapons." I huffed and shook my head, leaning forward to kiss him softly

"It'll be ok Dean. We're all going to get through this." I said, resting my forehead against his.

"Promise?" He asked quietly.

"Promise." I said, kissing him again.

He leaned back and looked at me, running his hand along the side of my face. "So we do this together."

"You said it yourself, we're stronger as a family." I said, and he nodded.

Neither of us wanted to voice the fact that we might not even be a family come the morning, that tonight was going to be a new turning point for us. It felt like the calm before the storm, hot and heavy air around us that needed a clearing out. It made it hard to see what we needed to do, and it was everywhere, you couldn't escape it.

"Now come on, he's going to be hard pressed to get to Lincoln by midnight as it is." I said, looking in the direction of John's truck.

"Yeah..." Dean said with a sigh. He wasn't happy, but he seemed a little more at peace with things.

As soon as we reached John and Sam we were out of the car, and John was looking at us urgently.

"You get it?" He asked, walking up to us.

I pulled a brown paper bag out of my knapsack and handed it to him. He opened it and took a look at the antique gun that was inside, it looked like the real thing, let's hope it could pass for it long enough for John to do whatever he had planned to get away.

"You know this is a trap, don't you. That's why Meg wants you to come alone?" Dean asked, still unsure about this plan of action.

"I can handle her." John replied, he sounded confident, I wondered if he really was. "I got a whole arsenal loaded. Holy water, Mandaic, amulets..."

"Dad..." Dean interrupted what his father was saying.

"What?" John asked softly.

"Promise me something." Dean said, looking uncomfortable.

"What's that?" John asked with a slight frown.

"This whole thing goes south just... get the hell out. Don't get yourself kill all right, you're no good to us dead." Dean finished, getting it off his chest. John looked down at the colt and considered Dean's words.

"Same goes for you." John said nodding and we all fell silent for a moment, keeping to our own thoughts.

"All right listen to me," John said finally. "They made the bullets special for this colt. There's only four of them left. Without them this gun is useless." He looked at us, letting his words sink in. "You make every shot count."

"Yes sir." Sam said, nodding.

"Been waiting a long time for this fight. Now it's here I'm not gonna be in it. It's up to you kids now. It's your fight, you finish this. You finish what I started. You understand?" He said looking at us each in turn. We nodded, determined.

John glanced at the colt again, and then looked Dean in the eyes. They exchanged a look, trust and pride was there, John knew Dean would see the job done. He handed the gun over with a nod, his hand falling to his side again.

"We'll see you soon Dad." I said with watery eyes, John looked at me with a smile that said he didn't quite agree, but he didn't voice it.

"I'll see you later." John nodded, looking at each of us before turning on his heel and getting into his truck. He drove off without so much as a backwards glance and we just watched him.

"Later..." Dean said softly.

* * *

**Chapel**

We had a few hours before nightfall, the boys were preparing in their own ways. I had mine. I slipped into the chapel down the street from the motel, it was lit up in colour from the stained glass windows all around me. I had a moment to think about how it was very similar to the chapel at Pastor Jim's. I shook that from my mind because I didn't want to look at it right now.

Slipping my rosary out from under my t-shirt, I played with the amulet and cross hanging from the end of it. As I knelt I felt the tension leave my body, it was a meditation, a calming within, and I needed it now more than ever.

One thing John had told me was that I needed my faith to control the demon sense, if I had any hope of overcoming the debilitating effects I suffered when around a demon. They had been strong around Meg, and the Daevas, we had no way of knowing, but it seemed to me that this demon who had killed Mary and Jess - it had to be big, powerful, and not just a rookie player. I had no way of knowing how I would react in his presence, even if I could control it around lesser demons.

I was lost in my thought when Dean walked up and sat with me. We sat this way for a long time, in comfortable silence. We'd been together for so long, we didn't need the incessant talk that some people did. We knew each other, inside and out.

"Does it help?" He asked finally. I knew what he meant.

"Yes." I answered, looking over at him. We'd had this discussion before, but maybe he just wanted to hear it again. I don't really know.

He nodded quietly and I reached out to hold his hand, leaning against him gently.

"I don't suppose I can convince you to stay at the motel tonight?" He asked hopefully, looking over at me.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, didn't think so." He said in response to the eye brow.

I smiled at him, squeezing his hand and resting my head against his shoulder. I looked up at some of the stained glass and smiled. The each told a different story, no church was ever exactly the same as the others.

After a while, we got up and left, walking out into the early evening air. Dean put his arm around me, pulling me into him and looking at me. His eyes read mine and I dropped any of my barriers so he could see all my feelings and emotions.

"If things get hairy in there, you get out, you hear me?" He said sternly. I nodded. He knew as well as I did that I was lying with the nod, but it made him feel better having said it. I kissed him gently, letting him feel how much I loved him. I had a moment to ask myself, what would I do if anything happened to him, and then the thought was gone as quickly as it had cropped up, shoved deep below a surface of toughness. John had taught us all well, we could control these emotions if we needed to - but we didn't do it often, because it was too hard on us.

Going back to the motel room, Sam was pacing as he waited for Dean to collect me. He smiled when he saw us, thankful we were ok. Yep, here we were, our little band of heroes, out for more blood, sometimes i wondered just how we did it, day in and day out, and ye7 at the end of the day, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

* * *

**Monica's House**

Sam and Dean were in the front of the Impala, the colt sitting between them. I lounged in the back, but I couldn't get comfortable, I was as anxious as the boys and kept shifting in my seat. Eventually I just gave up, sitting forward and leaning my arms across the back of their seat, head resting on top.

"Maybe we could tell them it was a gas leak. Might get them out of the house for a few hours." I suggested. We'd been trying to come up with a viable reason for the last half hour.

"Yeah and how many times has that actually worked for us?" Dean asked, looking at me. I shrugged, he was right, it pretty much never worked.

"We could always tell them the truth." Sam scoffed.

Dean turned a raised eyebrow to Sam, and we both stared at him for a moment. Sam's mouth twitched at the corner.

"Nah!" We all said at the same time, laughing. That never worked.

"I know, I know. I just... with what's coming for these folks..." Sam's voice trailed off.

"Sam, we only got one move and you know it, all right?" Dean said, nodding at the house. "We gotta wait for that demon to show itself and then we get it before it gets them."

We all looked at the house for a while, it was dark and quiet.

"I wonder how Dad's doing." I said absently.

Dean stared straight ahead, a slight incline to his head. "I'd feel a lot better if we were there backing him up."

"I'd feel a lot better if he were here backing us up." Sam said quietly.

We all sighed and went back to watching the house. Waiting was never our strong suit when we were younger, preferring to just go gung-ho into situations and deal with the consequences when we got there. It was a good thing Dean was here to calm us down, because it was all I could to go keep myself from going over and attempting a kidnapping to get these people out of the house.

"This is weird." Sam said after a while.

"What?" Dean asked, glancing over.

"After all these years we're finally here. It doesn't seem real." Sam explained, looking at Dean who was sitting very still, lost in his thoughts.

"We jut gotta keep our heads and do our job, like always," Dean said, repeating the same old thing John told us over and over.

"Yeah, but this isn't like always." Sam said quietly.

Dean looked over at Sam, and then back at the house. "True," he admitted.

Sam took a deep breath, and then looked over at his brother.

"Dean... uh... I wanna thank you." Sam said with a smile. I inclined my head and he looked at me, smiling, leaning forward to give me a brotherly peck on the cheek. "You too Beth."

"For what?" Dean asked, confused.

"For everything. You've always had my back you know? Even when I couldn't count on any I could always count on you guys. And ah... I don't know, I just wanted to let you know, just in case." Sam finished and I sat up with a frown.

Dean had caught the same message I had. "Whoa whoa whoa, are you kidding me?" He asked, looking at Sam furiously.

"What?" Sam asked, taken aback.

"Don't say just in case something happens to you. I don't want to hear that freaking speech man. _Nobody's _dying tonight." He looked first at Sam, and then me when he said that. "Not us, not that family, nobody." He turned to look at the house. "Except that demon. That evil son of a bitch ain't getting any older tonight, you understand me?"

I chuckled, good to see his head was in the game.

"Aye aye captain." I said, leaning forward to kiss his cheek and he nodded at me before breaking into a grin.

I leaned over and gave Sam a kiss on the cheek too. "We love you Sammy, we're not going to let anything bad happen, it'll be ok." I promised him, just like I had Dean earlier. I pulled at the rosary at my neck and lay back in the seat for a bit. If I was going to be forced to wait this out, no better way to do it than pray, I owed our guardian angel a prayer today anyway.

It was a good few hours later now, Dean was on the phone to John, trying to get an update.

"He's not answering." Dean said to us, looking worried.

"Maybe Meg was late. Maybe cell reception's bad." Sam offered excuses for why the phone calls were going unanswered.

"Maybe he's just not picking up like he never does." I smirked from the back seat, recalling Dean's classic speech from earlier where he more or less ripped John a new one. The boys looked at me and broke into smiles, they saw the irony of the whole exercise too.

Suddenly I felt like I was going to throw up. I gagged and fell forward, almost to the floor of the car. The radio suddenly started to buzz with static and the wind picked up outside.

"Guys!" I said, reaching out to them as we looked on. The lights in Monica's house started to flicker and I sat up, heart starting to beat just that little bit faster.

"It's coming." I said, pulling myself together. I forced the nausea down, and climbed out of the car, Dean and Sam already out their doors. Dean cast me a worried look but I shook my head, indicating I was ok. I had a litany going in my head, one that I'd picked up from one of my Dad's journals. The _Litany to St Joseph – _terror of all demons_. _I had memorised over the last few weeks and it was working, the nausea became a dull ache in my stomach, the screaming in my head just a minor sound.

I ran after the boys, and brought my focus to the task at hand, we had to get Monica and her family out of here now.

Dean used a credit card to open the front door and we crept into the house quietly. Sam led the way, I followed with Dean bringing up the rear as we went into the lounge. Suddenly Dean grunted as he dropped to the ground, narrowly avoiding the baseball bat that was being wielded against him by Monica's husband.

"Get out of my house!" He yelled at us. Dean jumped up and closed in on the man, grabbing the bat as the man struggled with him.

"Please, please, Mr Holden please." Sam tried to get the man to calm down.

Dean was having none of it, taking control of the situation he swung the man against the wall, holding the bat across his throat.

"Be quiet and listen to me!" Dean said sharply to him. "Be quiet and listen. We are trying to help you."

Monica called out from upstairs and we glanced up. "Charlie? Is everything ok?"

Holden had a moment think and then he was yelling. "Monica! Get the baby!"

"Don't go into the nursery!" Sam yelled.

Holden struggled against Dean, but he was no match. His eyes were panicked as he realised that he was out of options here.

"You stay away from her!" He yelled as Sam ran up the stairs.

Dean backhanded Holden, knocking him unconscious, and put him over his shoulder in a fireman's lift, heading for the door.

"Find Sam!" Dean yelled at me, he didn't have to ask me twice, I was already half way up the stairs.

I took them two at a time, reaching the top in a heartbeat, Sam was just disappearing into the nursery when I reached the top landing. I sprinted down the hallway after him. I heard a scream, _Monica_ and then I reached the open door. Monica was pinned to the wall, screaming for Rosie.

When I saw him it was all I could do not to fall to my knees. I renewed my litany inside my head and felt the darkness recede.

The demon turned to look at us, his eyes flashed yellow and Sam hesitated, frozen, lost in the eyes.

"Sam!" I yelled, startling him. He blinked and raised the colt, pulling the trigger. The demon disappeared into smoke and Monica slid to the floor screaming.

"Where the hell did it go!?" Sam yelled, looking frantically around.

"My baby!" Monica called out, trying to move toward the cot. Sam grabbed her and started to pull her out of the room.

"Take her and go!" I said to Sam, rushing for the baby.

"Rosie!" Monica cried out but she was no match for Sam who had her.

"Beth'll get her." Sam said to her, and I grabbed the baby, blankets and all, the cot exploding into flames as I cradled her in my arms. I recoiled against the sudden heat and staggered out of the room, racing down the stairs toward the door as the room burst into flame.

The whole house seemed full of smoke, I ran for the door, coughing and trying to keep low. Dean met me as I got to the porch. He put a protective arm around me and the baby guiding us to safer ground.

"You get away from my family!" Holden yelled at us.

"No, Charlie don't. They saved us!" Monica said, coughing from the smoke that we'd inhaled. I brought Rosie up and put her in Monica's arms, the woman was crying and in shock, her husband moving to put his arms around the both of them.

I looked at Dean with relief, and wrapped my arms around him, holding him tight.

"Thank you." Monica said to us and we nodded.

All three of us stared up at the house, devastated. We'd saved the family, but we'd failed to kill the demon. Suddenly it reappeared in the window, a black silhouette, looking out at us, standing completely still.

Sam started to run for the house, yelling "It's still in there!"

Dean let go of me and grabbed Sam by the arm. "Sam, Sam, no!" I reached out for Sam's other arm, holding on.

Sam struggled against us. "Let me go! It's still in there." He said, looking at us both.

"No. It's burning to the ground Sam, it's suicide." I said, holding on to him.

"I don't care!" Sam yelled.

"I do!" Dean yelled back, pushing Sam back. We watched as the shadow disappeared, it was gone.

"Stop it Sam. Let it go, it's not worth your life." I said, looking up at my little brother. Sam emotionally fought us, the anger, frustration, and failure crossing his face, but he physically stopped struggling against us, allowing us to pull him away from the house.

* * *

**Motel Room**

Dean had the phone plastered to his ear, he paced the length of the room as he tried to get John on the phone.

"Come on Dad, answer your phone damn it," Dean said, frustrated. When it rang out to voicemail yet again, he hung up.

"Something's wrong," he said, turning to us.

Sam was sitting on the bed, staring at the wall, sullen. He hadn't spoken since we got back from the house.

"You hear me?" Dean said looking over at Sam. "Something's happened!"

"If you had just let me go in there, I could've ended all this." Sam said stubbornly, he was fuming, but it wasn't just anger, it was despair – I moved in front of him, pulling up a chair to sit where I could look in his eyes. What I saw there was a little frightening, he was so far past the hurt, he was sinking and fast.

"Sam, the only thing you would have ended was your life." I said, grasping one of his hands in mine.

"You don't know that." Sam said, looking at my hand.

"So what, you're just willing to sacrifice yourself is that it?" Dean asked, annoyed at Sam's attitude.

Sam stood up in Dean's face. "Yeah. Yeah you're damn right I am."

"Well that's not going to happen, not as long as I'm around." Dean said back at him, just as stubborn.

"What the hell are you talking about Dean?" Sam asked, letting out a frustrated breath. "We've been searching for this demon our whole lives. It's the only thing we've ever cared about." This wasn't true, not where Dean was concerned, but Sam couldn't see it. Couldn't see that this wasn't about killing the demon, this was about protecting Sam and giving him back a life, one taken from him at too young an age.

"Sam, I want to waste it. I do. OK? But it's not worth dying over." Dean was adamant, you could see it in his eyes, he was over losing everything we loved and cared for, he was tired. This shocked his brother.

"What?" Sam said, looking surprised.

"I mean it. If hunting this demon means getting yourself killed then I hope we never find the damn thing." Dean said, looking at Sam, his eyes full of the loss that he would feel if anything happened to Sam while we hunted this thing down.

"That thing killed Jess." Sam said, barely containing his rage. "That thing killed Mom."

"You said it yourself once," Dean said quietly, staring at Sam. "That no matter what we do, they're gone. They're never coming back."

Sam's face fell to anger, and he grabbed Dean and shoved him hard against the wall, I rose to my feet in shock and moved toward them.

"Don't you say that, not you! Not after all this don't you say that!" Sam said, upset.

"Sam!" I said, grabbing at his arm, he looked at me and then back at Dean.

"Sam look." Dean said, sighing. "The four of us... that's all we have... it's all I have. Sometimes I feel like I'm barely holding it together man... and without you guys or Dad..." He trailed off, I could see the anguish in his eyes, I'd felt it all those nights when he'd rolled over and held me, the emptiness inside creeping up to consume him. We couldn't have it end like this, not after all this time.

Sam let go of Dean suddenly, all these words sinking in. "Dad..." Sam said, running his hand across his face, fighting back tears.

"He should have called by now. Try him again." I said softly and Dean nodded, raising his phone to his ear again.

A sharp intake of breath and Dean looked over at us, panic in his eyes.

"Where is he?" Dean said in to the phone. I swallowed, staring at Dean whose eyes were now filled with fury. He'd fought to keep his voice level, calm, but that wasn't what was building in his eyes.

He hung up.

"What? What was that?" I asked, crossing back to him, hand on his arm.

"They've got Dad." Dean said, looking at me.

"Meg?" Sam asked. Dean nodded.

"What did she say?" I asked, feeling the panic rise in my throat.

"I just told you..." Dean said, starting to pace, clearly upset.

"OK, OK." He muttered to himself. He took the colt and tucked it into the back of his jeans, I watched numbly.

"What are you doing Dean?" Sam asked, frowning.

Dean was grabbing our things, tossing them in the duffel bags, zipping them up.

"We gotta go." He said, heading for the door.

"Why?" Sam asked, always questioning.

Dean stopped, dumping the bags by the door and grabbed his jacket off the bed, shrugging into it.

"Because the demon knows we're in Salvation, all right." He said, looking at me, I felt my eyes widen as the reality of our situation set in.

"It knows we have the colt. It's got Dad – it's probably coming for us next." I said and Dean nodded.

"Good." Sam said. "We've still got three bullets left. Let it come." He said, thinking only of his vendetta.

"Listen, tough guy, we're not ready ok?" Dean said, glaring at his brother. "We don't know how many of them are out there. Now, we're no good to anybody dead. We're leaving... now!"

He picked up the bags again and headed out the door, I grabbed my jacket and trailed after him, my head full of fears and thoughts. _Where would we go? What was our next move? How could we save John? Could we save him?_ I numbly climbed into the passenger seat. Dean slammed the trunk down and got in next to me.

We sat there, waiting for Sam to figure it all out and join us. It wouldn't take long, it never did.

"Dean I'm scared." I whispered, looking at him in the darkness, our only light that of the street light nearby.

He looked at me, his eyes haunted, showing me that he was just as freaked out as I was. "We can do this." He said, nodding. "We can do this, we're going to get him back Beth." I nodded numbly.

Sam climbed in behind us, slamming the door behind him and sulking.

"We need to get out of here, where are we going?" I asked, looking at my hands where I was fingering my rosary as it hung outside my top.

Dean didn't answer, just pulled the car out on to the road and started driving, staring fiercely at the road.

"I'm telling you Dean, we could have taken him." Sam said from the back seat.

"What we need is a plan. Now, they're probably keeping Dad alive, we just gotta figure out where. They're gonna want to trade him for the gun," Dean answered, I nodded, he was right - of course he was right, why else would Meg have answered the phone? Sam was shaking his head in the back seat, Dean glanced up at him sharply. "What?!"

"Dean, if that were true, why didn't Meg mention a trade?" Sam asked, tears coming into his eyes. "Dad, he might be..."

"Don't!" Dean ordered shortly.

"Look, I don't want to believe it any more than you. But if he is, all the more reason to kill this damn thing. We still have the Colt. We can still finish the job." Sam was obstinate.

"Screw the job Sam!" Dean yelled at him, looking wild.

"Dean, I'm just trying to do what he would want. He would want us to keep going." Sam said, trying to reason with his brother.

"Quit talking about him like he's dead already. Listen to me, everything stops until we get him back, you understand me? Everything." Dean snapped, I flinched at the tone in his voice. He was so angry, it was going to burn him up, we needed some help, we needed to regroup.

Sam seemed to take what he'd said in, pausing to think. "So how do we find him?" He asked quietly.

"We can go to Lincoln. Start at the warehouse where he was taken." I offered, I'd been trying to come up with a place to start and it was the best idea I had.

"Come on, Beth, you really think these demons are going to leave a trail?" Sam asked, his words were condescending, but his tone wasn't. He reached over and rested his hand on my shoulder and I just shrugged.

Dean was thinking it over. "You're right. We need help." He glanced over at me and I looked at up curiously. He had a plan.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Sioux Falls." Dean said, glancing over at me. I swallowed hard and nodded, Dean kicked the car up a gear and started to speed down the highway. It would be a good four or more hours to get there, and we had a lot of road to put behind us.

- To Be Continued -

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

* * *

Can I just say that I just had a great chuckle at the user name of one of my new followers. "TheAngelsHaveTheTardisAt221B" That is such an awesome user name! I had images of Castiel with it and some grand plan to save the world...someone needs to write a one-shot fic with that name! :D

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This chapter's song is _**You're Going Down **_**by Sick Puppies**

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I apologise for some of the grammatical and spelling errors last chapter, I am going to go back and fix them. I think I'll be printing off all the chapters just to have a hardcopy anyway, so I might do it because I can do a proof read easier that way (I like my red pen!) and it'll give me something to do on my long weekend away with family in a few weeks!

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I've been doing fanart today – I just love it (even though I'm not very good at it). I have the story picture and title for S2 now :D And S3 I might add! Haha Thanks to everyone who weighed in with their thoughts on a title :D It is making me want to do a Facebook page for the fanfic so I can put art with the chapters though LOL Yes, I need help, mental help... ;)

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I was actually quite sad the first time I watched this, a long time ago. I didn't want to see Pastor Jim die, I think he would have been a fascinating hunter to feature in the series!

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Thank you to everyone for your great comments last chapter, and welcome to the new followers/reviewers :D Glad to have you on the journey :D


	21. Devil's Trap

_When night has become the day__  
__They're sending you far away__  
__So, so far away__  
__When everything starts to fade__  
__You don't have to be afraid__  
__No, you don't have to be afraid__Take my hand and reload__  
__This is free love__  
__That's what we are made of__  
__Yes we are-are-are__  
__Reload__  
__This is real love__  
__That's what we are made of__  
__Yes we are_

* * *

**DEVIL'S TRAP**

* * *

We'd driven through the night, it was now early morning, the sun just starting to peek over the horizon. The glorious pinks and oranges that melted across the sky were lost on us, we had only one thing on our mind, and it was anything but beautiful. Dean hadn't paused the whole way, just putting more black-top behind us as we sped toward our destination. He looked tired, emotionally worn out from the night's events.

We were sitting in Bobby's living room, or what passed for it anyway. Bobby wasn't much of a housekeeper – the room was littered with books stacked on every conceivable surface, and when there wasn't room for that, they were just stacked in piles next to chairs. Papers were stuck to every wall, just like John had done in the motel, like we did: it was cluttered, busy, untidy – and it was the most comfortable I'd felt in a long time. Sam looked just as comfortable as me, perched on a chair at one of the cluttered desks, reading a large book.

Bobby picked up two round silver flasks engraved with crosses and handed one to Dean.

"Here you go," he said with a nod. Given the mess of the house, Bobby was actually quite a neat person. His beard and moustache were neatly trimmed, his clothes clean and untorn. He preferred to stick to comfortable jeans, a cotton long-sleeved t-shirt, with a plaid flannelette shirt over the top, finished off with a baseball cap. Today he had a second vest on for warmth, that was the odd thing out, it was stained from grease, obviously Bobby had been out working on one of his cars in it.

"What is this – holy water?" Dean asked, holding the flask up.

"That one is." Bobby answered before holding up his own flask. "This is whiskey." He took a swig of the whiskey before handing it to Dean who also took a drink.

"Bobby, thanks." Dean said with a nod. "Thanks for everything. To tell you the truth, I wasn't even sure we should come."

"Nonsense, your Daddy needs help." Bobby said, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Well, yeah, but last time we saw you, you did kind of threaten to blast him full of buckshot." I said from my chair where I was nursing a long overdue coffee.

"Cocked the shotgun and everything," Dean said raising his eyebrow at Bobby.

Bobby chuckled. "Yeah well, what can I say? John just has that effect on people," he answered, shaking his head.

Dean was quiet, thinking. "Yeah, I guess he does," he agreed.

"None of that matters now. All that matters is that you get him back." Bobby said looking at us, and we nodded.

Sam spoke from his spot in the room, sounding a little in awe. "Bobby, this book... I've never seen anything like it."

Bobby moved over to the desk Sam was at and sat on the corner of the desk. "Key of Solomon? It's the read deal, all right." Bobby said, looking over the book.

"And these, uh, these protective circles. They really work?" Dean and I came over to take a look.

"Hell, yeah." Bobby said looking over at me as I peered over Sam's shoulder. "You get a demon in – they're trapped. Powerless. It's like a Satanic roach motel." Sam chuckled. Dean frowned at the picture in the book that Sam was looking at.

"I've seen that before." Dean said, pointing at the symbol, he looked up at me and I looked down – I recognised it too.

"Well you should have, that's what trapped that demon bitch when she was in Beth, giving you time to save her." Bobby nodded and I felt a little sick to my stomach. I remembered what that was like, pacing the boundaries of the circle, trapped like an animal.

"Really?" Sam asked, looking up. He had been so young, he didn't really see all of that and John had cleaned it up before we'd left. I nodded in response to Sam.

"This book was your Daddy's," Bobby said to me. "He was the expert when it came to demons."

I swallowed and blinked back a tear. "Lot of good it did him..." I said quietly, they all looked at me concerned, but no one said anything. I sighed. "I hope it can help, I've already lost one father, I don't want to lose another," I bit my lip as I said that, it was sitting very close to home just how dangerous a situation we were in right now.

"Well, I'll tell you. This is some serious crap you kids stepped in." Bobby said, looking at Dean.

"Oh yeah? How's that?" Sam asked, looking up.

"Normal year, I hear of, say, three demonic possessions. Maybe four, tops." He explained and I nodded, John had said the same thing to me in the past, which is why a lot of my father's work hadn't been something we'd prioritised knowing about.

"Yeah?" Dean asked.

"This year I hear of twenty-seven so far. You get what I'm saying? More and more demons are walking among us – a lot more." Bobby said pointedly. I shuddered, my hand dropping absently to my amulet which was now a permanent fixture of my rosary.

"Do you know why?" I asked.

"No, but I know it's something big. The storm's coming, and you kids, your Daddy – you are smack in the middle of it." He'd just summed it up perfectly. Right now we might be in the calm of the storm, but it was all going to go right down the drain soon enough, all we could hope for was to get ahead of the wave and ride it out.

The guard dog outside started barking, and Bobby frowned, "Rumsfeld," he muttered to more to himself than anyone else, and going to look out the window.

As Bobby reached the window the dog stopped barking and began to whine.

"What is it?" Bobby said to himself. I followed and looked out the window with him, the chain which had previously been tethered to the dog was now hanging broken, and the dog was nowhere in sight.

I felt a lurch in my gut, and a dizzying wave hit me. I grabbed his arm, looking into his eyes with alarm. "Demon!"

The door was suddenly kicked open. It was Meg. The blonde came sauntering into the house looking comfortable and confident. Dean had stepped a little closer to me, slipping the flask of holy water out of his pocket as he moved.

"No more crap, ok?" Meg asked with a smile, cocking her head at us.

Dean advanced on Meg, unscrewing the cap on the flask as he moved, but she was quicker, hitting him and sending him flying across the room into a stack of books. I gasped as he hit, and he slumped there, not moving.

Sam stepped in front of me, arm protectively holding my shirt as he pushed me behind him, retreating further into the room. Bobby followed us, and the three of us backed away from Meg, slowly.

"I want the Colt, Sam – the real Colt – right now." Meg demanded.

"We don't have it on us. We buried it." Sam said with a smirk.

"Didn't I say 'no more crap'? I swear – after everything I heard about you Winchesters, I got to tell you, I'm a little underwhelmed. First Johnny tried to pawn off a fake gun, and then he leaves the real gun with you lot of chuckleheads." We kept moving backwards, fast running out of space to move.

Meg continued her tirade. "Lackluster. I mean, did you really think I wouldn't find you?" She asked, cocky.

Dean had risen while she talked and was now standing behind her.

"Actually..." I said with a smile.

"...we were counting on it." Dean finished for me, a fury in his eyes as he stared at her. Meg spun to look at Dean, and if looks could kill, she would surely be dead. Dean turned his eyes upwards to the ceiling drawing Meg's attention there, and the reality of her situation came crashing down. She'd just walked into the same trap my Dad had set for another demon years ago, she was caught, and fast running out of options.

"Gotcha!" Dean smirked.

* * *

An hour later we had Meg tied to a chair, the three of us were standing looking at her and Sam was fuming that she looked so comfortable and sure of herself.

"She's not..." I said with a raised eyebrow. My stomach was doing somersaults in her presence, but I was able to manage it, to think. I could almost feel her emotions, if she had any, if I concentrated enough.

Bobby entered the room with a large canister of salt.

"I salted the doors and windows. If there are any demons out there – they ain't getting in." Bobby informed us and Dean nodded at him, standing up from his perch on the desk, moving to stand in front of Meg.

"Where's our father, Meg?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"You didn't ask very nice." Meg purred at him with a smile.

"Where's our father, bitch?" Dean asked again with a slight twitch of his mouth.

"Geez! You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Meg asked, feigning shock. "Oh wait, I forgot, you don't." She smirked.

Dean lunged at her, putting his hands on the chair arms and leaning in to her, the rage that had been simmering there for the last twelve hours was coming to the surface.

"You think this is a frigging game?" He yelled in her face. "Where is he?! What did you do to him?"

Meg didn't even flinch. "He died screaming. I killed him myself."

Dean looked at her as if assessing what she had said, his eyes were filled with hate. Then without warning he backhanded her across the face, hard, causing her to cry out. I flinched just a little, but I didn't move to stop him.

Meg looked back at him, her breathing coming a little harder now as she fought back the pain. A scream sounded in my head and I winced, Sam glanced at me worried.

"That's kind of a turn on – you hitting a girl. Does she like it like that?" She said, nodding at me with a raised eyebrow.

Dean's eyes narrowed. "You're no girl," he said stonily. I stared at her, swallowing, I wasn't so sure about that.

"Dean," I said, standing up and moving into the other room. Dean looked at me and followed, Bobby and Sam joining us.

"You ok?" Sam asked Dean as he moved out of the room.

"She's lying. He's not dead." Dean said, his eyes flashing.

I looked at Bobby, then moved to rest my hand on Dean's arm.

"Dean, you have to be careful with her. Don't hurt her." I said.

Dean gaped at me, fighting off his emotions. "Why?"

"Because she really is a girl, that's why." Bobby said, saying it for me.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, frowning. Dean was staring at me, the horror of our situation starting to dawn on him.

"She's possessed. That's a human possessed by a demon. Can't you tell?" I asked, looking first at Sam and then Dean.

"Are you trying to say there's an innocent girl trapped somewhere in there?" Sam asked, looking uncertain.

"Yeah." Dean said, eyes never leaving mine. He licked his lips. "Yeah, that's exactly what they're saying." His eyes softened as he looked at me, remembering that day when he'd found me in the exact same situation.

Dean looked back at Meg, she was staring at all of us, fuming.

"That's actually good news." Dean said suddenly, turning to me. "You have Dad's journal?" I nodded. "Get it." I knew what he was thinking, but I wasn't sure this was such a good idea.

I had the journal open to the exorcism page, Dean gave me a look of concern. "You ready?" I nodded.

We moved over to Meg and she looked at us curious.

"Are you gonna read me a story?" She asked with a smile.

"Something like that." Dean said, nodding. "Beth..."

"Regna terrae, cantate deo, psallite domino..." I continued reading the Latin as Meg turned to look at me. I felt sick to my stomach, like I could feel the hook that was grabbing at the demon with the litany I was speaking. I fought it back, and concentrated on the words before me.

"An exorcism?" Meg said to Dean with a raised eyebrow. "Are you serious?"

"Oh we're going for it baby – head spinning, projectile vomiting, the whole nine yards." Dean said, his face deathly serious.

"...tribuite vitutem deo." I finished the first psalm. Meg flinched in pain, looking over her shoulder at me.

"I'm going to kill you." She said, breathing heavily. She looked back at Dean. "I'm going to rip the bones from your body."

"No, you're gonna burn in Hell. Unless you tell us where our Dad is." Dean's eyes were frighteningly dark, he was so full of anger. Meg smiled at him as a response, she wasn't talking.

Dean looked up at me, nodding. "Well, at least you'll get a nice tan," he with a twitch of his mouth.

I continued reading. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incuriso infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, onmis congregatio et secta diabolica..."

Meg's body started to shake, she was clearly in pain, but she refused to budge. I kept reading, walking around to stand next to Dean – I wanted to see her face. The Latin flowing easily from my lips, this language was not new to me. Meg gasped from the pain and I stopped, my concentration broken.

"He begged for his life with tears in his eyes. He begged to see his sons and precious daughter one last time. That's when I slit his throat." She said through clenched teeth, staring at us with defiant eyes.

I exchanged glances with Dean, and then started reading again. Dean leaned in to her, his face just inches from hers.

"For your sake, I hope you're lying. Because if it's true, I swear to God, I will march into Hell myself and I will slaughter each and every one of you evil sons of bitches, so help me God!" He said to her with venom dripping off every word.

"Perditionis venenum propinare. Vade, satana, inventor et magister omnis fallaciae." I continued to read. A wind had started to pick up around the room, the pages of books flipping open on the desk, the exorcism was picking up momentum.

"Hostis humanae salutis. Humiliare sub potenti manu dei. Contremisce et effuge. Invocato a nobis sancto et terribile nomine. Quem inferi tremunt..." I continued, trying to ignore the obvious pain that the girl was now in.

"Where is he?" Dean asked again.

"You just won't take 'dead' for an answer, will you?" She asked, gasping from the pain.

"Where is he?!" Sam yelled at her, joining us at the edge of the devil's trap.

"Dead!" Meg yelled back at him, glaring.

"No, he's not! He's not dead! He can't be!" Dean yelled, angry and starting to lose control. Sam and I glanced at him worriedly.

"What are you looking at?" Dean asked Sam, and his brother looked taken aback. Dean turned his eyes to me, they were so dark, I'd never seen him like this. "Keep reading," he instructed me. I took a breath and looked down, too scared to argue.

"Ab insidis diaboli, libera nos, domine. Ut ecclesiam tuam secura tibi facias, libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos." The chair started to slide around the circle and Meg cried out. I was wide-eyed, never having seen an exorcism this close, I didn't really remember my own that well. "Ut inimicos sanctae ecclesiae humiliare digneris, to rogamus audi..."

"He will be!" Meg cried out to Dean, who held his hand up to me.

"Wait!" He said. I paused, looking up. "What?!" Dean asked, looking at her.

"He's not dead." Meg said, gasping for breath. "But he will be after what we do to him."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Sam asked, pacing around the edge of the circle.

"You don't," she whispered.

"Beth!" Dean yelled at me.

"A building!" Meg cried out, looking at me with anger. "Ok? A building in Jefferson City."

"Missouri?" Dean asked. "Where, where? An address!"

"I don't know," she said, her voiced breaking.

"And the demon – the one we're looking for – where is it?" Sam asked, looking down at her.

"I don't know! I swear! That's everything. That's all I know." She said, starting to shake.

"Finish it." Dean muttered, his face cold.

"What?!" Meg cried. "I told you the truth!" She said panicked.

Sam threw Dean a surprised look, she'd told us what we wanted to know.

"You son of a bitch, you promised." Meg muttered at Dean.

"I lied!" Dean yelled at her. "Beth?"

I hesitated, just for a moment, and Dean looked at me darkly. "Beth! Read." He said, I swallowed and looked down at the page, my mind spinning.

"Maybe we can still use her. Find out where the demon is," Sam said to Dean, who was shaking his head.

"She doesn't know." Dean said angrily.

"She lied." Sam said.

"Sam, there's an innocent girl trapped somewhere in there. We've got to help her." Dean said, looking over at me, I detected a slight glimmer of the Dean I knew starting to return to the surface.

"It'll kill her," I whispered, looking at the girl before me.

"What?" Dean asked, frowning.

Bobby stepped over from the window he'd been standing at, he'd been quiet this whole time. "You said she fell from a building. That girl's body is broken. The only thing keeping her alive is that demon inside," he told the boys, confirming my suspicions. "You exorcise it – that girl is going to die."

Dean looked between Bobby and me, stubbornly refusing to budge. "Listen to me, both of you, we are not gonna leave her like that."

"She is a human being." Bobby said gently.

"And we're gonna put her out of her misery." Dean said finitely, looking at me.  
"Beth, finish it."

I swallowed, looking at Bobby and then at Sam, finally Dean. My hand wavered, I wasn't sure, I didn't know what to do. I stared at Meg, who was glaring daggers at me.

Dean walked over to me, putting his hands on my shoulders, seeking out my eyes. I looked into them, trying to find some glimmer of Dean, _my Dean, _inside of them. I let all the fear and uncertainty show in my eyes and he looked at me. Slowly, the darkness receded as he stared at me.

"Beth, listen, I know you're not sure. I don't want to do this any more than you. But, you told me what it was like to have one of those things inside of you, the darkness, the fear." I nodded, tears in my eyes. "Beth we can't leave her like that." He swallowed. "I wouldn't leave _you _like that," he said, a vulnerability flashed into his eyes when he said that. I closed my eyes and nodded, he was right.

Taking a deep breath, I looked down at the journal, finding my place.

"Dominicos sanctae ecclesiae, terogamus audi nos, terribilis deus do sanctuario suo deus israhel. Ipse tribuite virtutem et fortitudinem plebi suae, benedictus deus, gloria patri..." It was done.

Meg threw her head back and screamed, for the first time I saw it from the other side, the black cloud leaving through her mouth. It spread throughout the protective circle, and then it disappeared.

The girl slumped forward in the seat, blood was dripping from her mouth. We stared, unsure what to do next. Slowly, agonisingly, Meg lifted her head to look at us.

"God, she's still alive..." I whispered. Dean moved immediately to her side.

"Call 911." Dean said to Bobby. "Get some water and blankets," he instructed Sam.

Bobby and Sam rushed off. Dean was untying one of her wrists and I dropped the journal on the table nearby to help with the other.

"Thank you." Meg whispered, looking me in the eye.

"Shh, shh. Just take it easy ok. You're gonna be ok." I said.

"Come on, let's get her down." Dean said and together we lifted her from the chair. There was the shattering sound of bones crunching as we lowered her to the ground and Meg groaned in pain.

"Sorry.. sorry." I said, "It's ok, it'll be ok." Looking at her with a grimace.

Meg strained to speak, words forced from her mouth. "A year..." she said.

"What?" Dean asked.

"It's been a year," she repeated.

"Shh, just take it easy." I said, holding her hand.

She looked up at us. "I've been awake, for some of it. I couldn't move my own body. The things I did – it's a nightmare."

Tears welled in my eyes and I nodded. "I know, I know." I said, softly brushing the hair out of her eyes.

"Was it telling us the truth about our Dad?" Dean asked.

"Dean..." I cautioned, but she turned to answer him.

"Yes. But it wants... you to know... that... they want you to come for him," she gasped.

"If Dad's still alive, none of that matters," Dean said resolutely.

Bobby and Sam came back into the room carrying a blanket and a glass of water. They covered her with the blanket, Dean gently lifted Meg's head up so she could have a drink of water.

"Where is the demon we're looking for?" Sam asked her.

"Not there. Other ones. Awful ones," she spluttered.

"Where are they keeping our Dad?" I asked her.

"By the rrr-river..." she forced out. "Sunrise."

"Sunrise? What does that mean?" Dean asked, but the light was fading from her eyes, I could see it, she was dying. "What does that mean?" Dean asked again, but she was gone, the same way my father had gone, with a final breath and the light fading from her eyes for good.

* * *

Bobby ushered us through the kitchen to the front door.

"You better hurry up and beat it. Before the paramedics get here," he said to us.

"What are you gonna tell them?" Dean asked, looking concerned.

"You think you guys invented lyin' to the cops? I'll figure something out." Bobby said. He turned and handed the Key of Solomon book to Sam. "Here, take this. You might need it."

"Thanks," Sam said with a smile.

"Thanks... for everything Bobby. Be careful all right?" I said, stepping in to give him a hug. He squeezed me quickly before stepping back.

"You just go find your Dad. And when you do, you bring him around, would you? I won't even try to shoot him this time," his eyes had a sparkle to them at the little joke. I smiled, it was good to have a light hearted moment.

* * *

**Jefferson City, Missouri**

We'd made the drive in just over six hours, shaving almost an hour and a half off what it should have been, Dean was frighteningly silent and broke almost every speed limit getting there. While I was pleased for the speed, I was also worried for him, he was unreachable.

We were parked by train tracks just outside of town now. Sam was reading the _Key of Solomon _while Dean stood at the trunk of the car, loading up guns and putting them in a bag. I exchanged a worried look with Sam, and walked around to join him.

"You've been quiet," I said, watching his hands as he worked.

"Just getting ready." Dean replied, not looking at me.

"He's going to be fine Dean." I said, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Dean didn't answer, just leaned on the back of the trunk, head down as he took a few deep breaths.

"Dean please, talk to me," I asked, trying to get him to look at me.

Sam interrupted us, pushing in behind me. He rubbed the dirt off the top of the trunk and started to draw on the finish with a white marker.

"Dude!" Dean said, frowning. "What are you drawing on my car?" He pulled away from me and went to look at what Sam had drawn.

"It's called a Devil's trap. Demons can't get through it or inside it." Sam explained.

"So?" Dean asked, looking at him. Sam moved to the other side of the trunk to draw the symbol again.

"It basically turns the trunk into a lock-box." Sam said.

"So?" Dean asked again, not comprehending.

"So, we have a place to hide the Colt while we go get Dad." Sam said, looking at Dean.

"What are you talking about? We're bringing the colt with us." Dean said, angry.

"We can't Dean. We've only got three bullets left. We can't just use them on any demon, we've got to use them on _the demon." _Sam said, suddenly the voice of reason, I started to wonder if this was opposites day.

"No, we have to save Dad, Sam, ok? We're gonna need all the help we can get." Dean said, shaking his head.

"Dean, you know how pissed Dad would be if we used all the bullets? Dean, he wouldn't want us to bring the gun." Sam said, closing the book and looking at his brother.

"I don't care, Sam. I don't care what Dad wants, ok?" Dean said loudly, getting argumentative. "And since when do you care what Dad wants?"

"We want to kill this demon. You used to want that too. Hell, I mean, you're the one who came and got me at school!" Sam tossed back at him. Dean scoffed.

"You're the one who dragged me back into this Dean. I'm just trying to finish it." Sam finished, looking from me to Dean. I sighed, and moved around between them both, I didn't know what to say, they both had good points.

"Wow, you and Dad are a lot more alike than I thought, you know that?" Dean said, his voice quietening. "You both can't wait to sacrifice yourself for this thing. But you know what? We're gonna be the ones to bury you... me and Beth! And I'm not putting her through that." He looked at me, a piece of the old Dean bleeding through, I smiled at that glimpse, feeling a little better for seeing it.

Dean turned back to Sam who was standing there speechless. "You're selfish, you know that? You don't care about anything but revenge," he said more quietly.

Sam blinked and shook his head. "That's not true, Dean." Dean scoffed at him again, as if to say Sam was lying. "I want Dad back." Sam said. "But they are expecting us to bring this gun. If they get the gun, they will kill us all. That colt is our only leverage and you know it, Dean. We can not bring that gun. We can't."

Dean looked down, thinking about this. I put a hand on his shoulder.

"He's right Dean," I said softly.

Dean frowned, looking down. "Fine."

"I'm serious, Dean," Sam said.

"I said fine Sam!" Dean snapped, looking unhappy.

Dean took the colt out of his jacket pocket and held it up for us to see before putting it in the trunk and slamming it closed.

* * *

We were walking along the river, trying to find the place Meg had mentioned. Dean was carrying the bag of weapons, silent and deep in thought. Sam looked around anxiously, as if expecting to be jumped at any point. I trudged along feeling sick to my stomach.

_Sick to my stomach._

I stopped, tuning in. The boys hesitated when I stopped, pausing to look back at me.

"Beth?" Dean asked, stepping back toward me.

I looked away, and focused on the sick feeling in my stomach, the dizziness in my mind. It pulled on me, as if the needle in a compass. I looked toward a clump of trees nearby and started walking quickly to them, Sam and Dean following close behind.

"Look." I said, pointing toward an apartment building.

"Hey, look at that," Dean said. "Think I know what Meg meant by sunrise." Dean said, nodding at me. The sign on the apartments read _Sunrise Apartments. _

"Son of a bitch," Dean said. "That's pretty smart. I mean, if these demons can possess people they can possess almost anybody inside."

"Yeah, and make anybody attack us," Sam agreed, nodding. We watched, there was a group of mothers on the front steps to the building chatting together while their kids played. They were innocents, and they were in the middle of war zone and didn't even know it.

"And so we can't kill them – a building full of human shields," Dean summed it up for us, it was a nightmare.

"They probably know exactly what we look like too." I said, "and they could like like anybody."

"Yeah, this sucks out loud," Dean said, frustrated.

"Tell me about it." Sam said, nodding. "All right, so, how the hell are we going to get in?"

Dean was looking at the building, deep in thought, planning. Suddenly he nodded.

"Pull the fire alarm, get out all the civilians," he said, looking at us.

"OK, but then the city responds in what, seven minutes?" I asked.

"Seven minutes exactly," Dean confirmed with a nod.

* * *

We prepared to make our move, but I suddenly felt too sick, the litany wasn't helping and I felt like I might faint the closer I got to the building. I grabbed Dean's arm and he turned to me with a frown.

"I can't go in there." I whispered.

"What?" He asked, turning to face me, taking my cheeks in his hands.

"I can't Dean, there's too many... I feel like I'm going to faint." I said mournfully, and he pulled me into a tight hug. "I'll only hold you back, I can't help you like this."

"It's ok." He said, pulling back. Sam was looking at me, worried. Dean's eyes showed a little bit of relief. He hadn't voiced it because he knew I'd argue, but he didn't want me anywhere near that building.

"Wait here for us, we'll probably need back-up anyway." He nodded and I smiled, glad to have the old Dean just a little bit back.

"Come with me," he said, walking me away from Sam over to a group of trees. He paused, looking at me, concerned.

I smiled, reaching up a hand to his cheek. "Welcome back." I said, and he looked at me confused.

"You've been a little dark this last day." I said quietly, letting him see how much I was worried.

He sighed, nodding. "I know, I know... I'm sorry. I'm still me Beth, I swear." I nodded, he leaned in to kiss me on the forehead. "I'm going to end this Beth, one way or another."

I pulled back and blinked. "Don't get yourself killed Dean," I said to him. "I mean it!"

He chuckled and nodded.

"Here," he said, taking my hand. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the colt, placing it in my hand. I gaped, not believing what he'd just done.

"You promised to leave that behind!" I said sternly with a frown.

"Yeah well, I didn't. Now I'm leaving it with you." Dean said, looking at me. "You don't hesitate to use it if you have to." I nodded, wide-eyed.

"You stay safe," he said to me after a long moment.

"You too." I said, barely trusting my voice to speak. He nodded, leaning in to kiss me for a couple of heartbeats, taking my breath away. Then he was gone, turning to rejoin Sam as they walked to toward the apartment building with not even a glance back.

I crouched in the trees and watched as Sam slipped inside, Dean waiting outside for him. The city responded quickly to the alarm, and people poured out the doors to safety. Dean engaged one of the fire crew, distracting him while Sam picked the lock of the fire engine storage bays. Next thing they were dressed as firemen and heading indoors.

I waited, clutching the colt in my hand as they disappeared. I was alone now, and that sinking feeling of when Dean had disappeared in Burkittsville returned to me. I kept vigil for the boys, and saw a man from the crowd start toward the apartment building. He was intercepted by a fireman, who just as quickly turned and walked inside with him, I knew they were demons. I started to fidget, we were running out of time.

I wandered down the path a little to get a better look at the building, there was a small alley down the side, and suddenly John and Dean were on the fire escape above it, working their way down, followed closely by Sam.

They hit the pavement below, Sam moving ahead of the others coming in my direction. Out of nowhere a man came and attacked Sam, pinning him to the pavement and beating him so hard his head was ricocheting off the side-walk. I started to run. Dean put John down on the pavement, and I realised just how weak he must be as I ran toward them.

"Sam!" Dean yelled, running over and kicking the man in the face, it did nothing. Instead I watched as Dean was thrown into a parked car, the windshield shattering from the impact. The man went back to beating Sam who was lying limply on the ground, taking blow after blow.

In my panic the nausea and dizziness seemed to retreat and I spoke the litany out loud racing into range, holding the colt with both hands as I sighted. I took extra care to be spot on, and then I pulled the trigger. The bullet flew through the air and hit the man between the eyes, a perfect shot. He fell off Sam, dead.

I put the colt in the back of my waistband, and ran to help Sam up. Dean was picking himself off the broken car, moving to get John.

"Sam! Sam come on, come on." I said pulling him to his feet. He leaned heavily on me, pausing to look at the man dead on the ground.

Dean was moving toward us with John leaning on one of his shoulders. "Come on. We got to get out of here." We hurried toward the Impala, no one followed us.

* * *

**Cabin, Somewhere remote in the woods**

I watched Sam pour the salt along the window sill, grimacing at the mess that was his face, he was bruised, bloody and swollen, and I was worried.

Dean came into the room and we both looked at him. "How is he?" I asked.

"He just needed a little rest, that's all. How are you?" He asked, turning to Sam.

"I'll survive," Sam said with a grimace. "You don't think we were followed here, do you?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so. I mean, we couldn't have found a more out-of-the-way place to hole up." He considered this and smiled.

"Hey... Beth, you know you um... you saved my life back there." Sam said, looking at me.

"So, I guess you're glad I gave her the gun, huh?" Dean quipped with a smile.

"Man, I'm trying to say thank you here," Sam laughed and I joined him, nodding.

"You're welcome little brother." I said with a smile, I walked away a little, the smile falling from my face. Dean noticed my change of attitude.

"Beth, what is it?" He asked and I looked over at him.

"You know that guy I shot? There was a person in there." I said quietly.

"You didn't have a choice Beth." Dean said to me, Sam nodded.

"Yeah, I know, that's not what bothers me." I said, frowning.

"Then what does?" Dean asked, coming over to me and resting his hand on my lower back.

"Killing that guy." I said, looking from Dean to Sam. "I didn't hesitate, I didn't even flinch. I didn't even think about it. For you guys, or Dad, the things I'm willing to do or kill, it's just... it scares me." I whispered the last part and Dean slipped his arm around my shoulder, silently holding me.

John stepped into the room, looking at me. "It shouldn't. You did good." I smiled at him, he looked beat up and sore, but he was alive, and he was standing in front of me, that was good enough for me.

"You're not mad?" Dean asked him.

"For what?" John asked, looking confused.

"Using a bullet." I said, looking at him, stiffening in Dean's arms. The mere thought of it made me sick.

"Mad? I'm proud of you. You and Dean. You know, Sam and I, we can get pretty obsessed. But you two, you watch out for this family. You always have." He smiled at me, and I fought off the nausea, wanting to believe him.

"Thanks." Dean said for us both, I leaned in to him.

Suddenly my legs started to give way and the lights flickered. Dean caught me in his arms, holding me steady while John and Sam went to the window and looked out.

"It found us. It's here." John said and I felt my heart jump.

"The demon?" Sam said, his breathing quickening. Dean leaned me against the table and stood up, the nausea seemed to intensify when he moved away from me.

"Sam, lines of salt in front of every window, every door." John said.

"I already did it." Sam said, frowning.

"Well, check it, ok?" John asked, looking at him.

"OK." Sam shrugged, going into the other room.

"Dean, you got the gun?" John asked.

"Yeah," Dean said, nodding.

"Give it to me." John ordered, holding out his hand. I started to feel the darkness surround me and it was like it was already on top of us.

Dean took the colt out of his jeans, looking at it in his hand. "Dad, Sam tried to shoot the demon in Salvation. It disappeared."

"This is me. I won't miss. Now, the gun, hurry!" He said urgently, still holding out his hand to Dean.

A pulling sensation tugged at me. "Dean!" I gasped, and Dean turned back to me, his hand on my shoulder to steady me.

"Son please." John said, still sounding urgent. "Give me the gun, what are you doing Dean?"

"Dean... he'd be furious." I said simply, looking in his eyes.

"What?" John asked, frowning at me. Dean nodded, he saw it too, we'd been around him too long, we knew him too well, we were his kids and he was hardest on us above all others.

"That she wasted a bullet." Dean said, looking up. "He wouldn't be proud of us, he'd tear us a new one." Dean turned and pointed the gun, cocking it.

"You're not our Dad." Dean said, staring him in the eye.

"Dean, it's me." John said calmly to him, but we knew now it wasn't. That nausea, it hadn't been the events of the day, he'd been here all along, I'd felt him all along, I just hadn't seen it.

"I know my Dad better than anyone. And you ain't him." Dean said. I stood up, forcing the darkness in my mind back, forcing my head clear.

"What the hell's gotten into you?" John asked.

"I could ask you the same thing. Stay back!" Dean said.

Sam came back into the room and looked shocked to see Dean pointing the gun at John.

"Dean, what the hell's going on?" Sam asked, looking between us all.

"Your brother's lost his mind." John said, looking at him.

"He's not Dad." I said.

"What?" Sam asked, clearly confused.

"I think he's possessed. I think he's been possessed since we rescued him." I said, my voice starting to panic.

"Don't listen to them Sammy." John said, looking at Sam.

"Beth how do you know?" Sam asked.

"I can _feel it. _I can feel it inside of him!" I said, looking frantically at Sam. Dean was fighting back tears.

"He's... he's different." Dean muttered.

"You know, we don't have time for this. Sam, you wanna kill this demon, you've gotta trust me."

Sam looked between Dean and I then back to John. Dean glanced at Sam but said nothing.

"Sam?" John asked questioningly.

Sam struggled, the uncertainty in his eyes, and then he made a decision.

"No. No." He said, moving over to Dean and I, turning to look at John.

John looked at us, he looked so … betrayed.

"Fine. You're all so sure, go ahead. Kill me." He said, daring Dean. He looked down, as if waiting for Dean to pull the trigger.

Dean hesitated, unable to comply, tears in his eyes. I couldn't breathe, it was all happening too fast.

"I thought so." John said, and when he looked up at us, his eyes were bright yellow.

We were suddenly propelled against the walls, hitting with a sickening thud. I felt pain travel up my spine as I hit and groaned. Sam was right next to me, we were pinned against one wall, Dean on another. He was looking at me panicked, we couldn't move.

John moved to pick up the gun which Dean had dropped when he was flung across the room.

"What a pain in the ass this thing's been." The demon said to us.

"It's you, isn't it? We've been looking for you for a long time." Sam muttered at him, the demon stared at him through John's face, yellow eyes gleaming.

"Well, you found me." He said with a smile.

"But the holy water?" Sam questioned.

"You think something like that works on something like me?" He asked, smirking. Sam tried to free himself from the wall, but failed.

John turned to look at me, those yellow eyes swirling. "Didn't count on you though, you nearly messed it all up." he said, walking nearer to me. "Fascinating. A real find, you're rare you know?" He said to me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Heh. Well that is curious." The demon said, not answering my question. Dean looked at me, confused and I swallowed, suddenly very scared.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Sam growled at him, and the demon turned back to him.

"Oh, that'd be a neat trick. In fact..." He put the gun on the table next to him. "...here. Make the gun float to you there, psychic boy."

Sam looked at the gun, straining, but nothing happened.

"Well, this is fun." He said, walking over to the window next to Dean. "I could've killed you a hundred times today, but this... this is worth the wait." He said with a happy sigh.

Dean struggled, but was just as pinned to the wall as we were. The demon looked over at him and I felt my heart stop.

"Your Dad – he's in here with me." The demon said. "Trapped inside his own meat suit. He says 'hi', by the way. He's gonna tear you apart. He's gonna taste the iron in your blood." I felt the tears welling in my eyes, and I blinked them back.

"Let him go, or I swear to God..." Dean muttered at him, angry.

"What? What are you and _God _gonna do?" The demon asked, laughing. "You see, as far as I'm concerned, this is justice." He walked over to me and looked back at Dean. "You know that little exorcism of yours? That was my daughter."

Dean frowned. "Who, Meg?"

"The one in the alley?" The demon asked, looking at me. "That was my boy. You understand."

"You've got to be kidding me." Dean muttered, rolling his eyes.

"What? You're the only one that can have a family? You destroyed my children. How would you feel if I killed your family?" He paused to smile at Dean.

"Oh that's right. I forgot. I did." He grinned. "Still, two wrongs don't make a right."

"You son of a bitch." Dean cursed at him.

"I wanna know why. Why'd you do it?" Sam asked from beside me, glaring at the demon, who turned to look at him.

"You mean why did I kill Mommy and pretty, little Jess?" He asked.

"Yeah." Sam said, groaning.

The demon turned back to Dean, a smile on his face. "You know, I never told you this, but Sam was going to ask her to marry him." He turned to face Sam. "Been shopping for rings and everything."

He paused and looked at Sam. "You want to know why? Because they got in the way."

"In the way of what?" Sam asked, angry.

"My plans for you, Sammy. You...and all the children like you." He said.

"Listen, you mind just getting this over with, huh?" Dean asked, rolling his eyes. "Cause I really can't stand the monologuing."

The demon walked over to Dean, getting in his face. "Funny, but that's all part of your M.O. Isn't it? Masks all that nasty pain, masks the truth."

"Oh yeah? What's that?" Dean asked.

"You know, you fight and you fight for this family, for your girl, but the truth is... they don't need you. Not like you need them. Sam – he's clearly John's favourite, although, it could be a close second with the girl... he always wanted a daughter, and he's different with her, isn't he? But you and Sam, even when they fight, it's more concern than he's ever shown you."

Dean stared defiantly at him. "I bet you're real proud of your kids, too, huh? Oh wait, I forgot. I wasted 'em!" He looked smug, but I knew it was an act.

Dean smiled at him, and there was a staring match for a moment. Then the demon stepped back, head down. I felt a darkness rise in the room, strong, powerful and I gasped as it brushed at me.

When the demon looked back up Dean suddenly yelled in pain.

"Dean!" I yelled out, struggling against the force pinning us to the wall. "No!" Dean was starting to bleed from his chest, the bright red liquid running down his shirt. I screamed and Sam struggled harder to get free.

"Dad! Dad, don't you let it kill me!" Dean shouted at his father, looking into the demon's eyes.

The demon just smiled, wearing John's body, and Dean started to yell in pain again, more blood pouring from his chest.

"Dean! No!" Sam yelled, fighting hard. I couldn't breathe, there was blood running out of Dean's mouth, god knows what that thing had done to him. He was going to die, and we were going to be forced to watch. Tears streamed down my face and I sagged against the wall, we were all going to die, and Dean was going to go first. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

"Dad, please!" I called out to John. Dean passed out. "Dean!"

John suddenly whispered. "Stop..." Sam and I slid to the floor, released from the power that had been holding us. "Stop it." John said, stepping back.

Sam dived for the table and grabbed the colt, swinging it around to face John, whose momentary control had granted us a reprieve.

"You kill me, you kill Daddy." The yellow-eyed demon said to Sam.

"I know," he said, and then he moved, firing the gun and shooting John in the leg. He fell to the floor, so did Dean. The nausea suddenly left me, and I was able to stumble over to him.

"Dean? Dean!" He looked at me weakly. "Oh god, you've lost a lot of blood." I was crying, tears streaming down my face as I assessed his injuries. I wasn't even sure I should move him.

"Where's Dad?" He asked softly, looking at me.

"He's right here. He's right here, Dean." Sam said, crouching next John.

"Check on him." Dean said, rolling on the floor in pain. Even when he was dying he was thinking of everyone else. I forced back a sob and slid my arm under his shoulders, helping him to sit up. Sam looked at John, who was lying motionless on the floor.

"Dad? Dad?" Sam asked, leaning over him.

John looked up suddenly, eyes panicked. "Sammy! It's still alive. It's inside me, I can feel it. You shoot me! You shoot me! You shoot me in the heart, son!" Sam stood up and aimed at John. "Do it now!" John ordered and I gaped.

"Sam, don't you do it. Don't you do it!" Dean said from beside me.

"You've gotta hurry! I can't hold onto it much longer!" John begged. "You shoot me, son! Shoot me!" I shook my head, this wasn't happening. "Son, I'm begging you! We can end this here and now! Sammy!"

"Sam, no." I whispered, but he heard me.

"You do this! Sammy! Sam..." The gun lowered, Sam was hesitating. John's head suddenly threw back and a black cloud rose from his mouth and disappeared into the floor. John looked up, his eyes flashing betrayal at Sam who was struggling still with what he'd just been asked to do.

We got them in the car, Sam was driving, John next to him, grimacing in pain. I was in the back with Dean lying across the seat, his head in my lap. I stroked his face as Sam floored it along the highway, he was covered in blood, and I watched him, my breathing unsteady, coming in short gasps as I fought off the rising panic threatening to set in.

"Look, just hold on, all right. The hospital's only ten minutes away." Sam said, glancing back at me. I nodded.

"I'm surprised at you Sammy. Why didn't you kill it? I thought we saw eye-to-eye on this? Killing this demon comes first – before me, before everything." I stifled a sob at that, I was so angry, and I'd stuffed it all down but it was starting to overspill now that I stood to lose the one thing that had been a constant in the last ten years of my life, and all over a twenty-year old vendetta.

Sam looked in the rear-view mirror at us, his eyes catching mine and he looked just as sorrowful as me.

"No sir. Not before everything," Sam said, finally understanding what his brother had meant earlier. "Look, we've still got the colt. We still have the one bullet left. We just have to start over, all right? I mean, we already found the demon..."

There was a sickening smash on the passenger side as something hit us, forcing the car off the road and crushing the side John was on. We were pushed for a good twenty years before coming to a halt. I'd hit my head, a smashing pain rang through me and I felt the warm trickle of blood running down the side of my face. I looked around me, we'd been hit by a truck, and there was a man getting out of the cabin, coming toward us.

Sam stirred and I leaned over Dean to reach him, shaking him. "Sam, Sam! Wake up!" He groaned and looked over at me, eyes wide.

The black eyes of the demon-possessed driver met ours as he used super-human strength to pry the driver's door off the hinges. I had a moment to panic, then Sam looked at him, and the light from the truck caused the colt to gleam.

"Back. Or I'll kill you, I swear to god." Sam said.

"You won't. You're saving that bullet for someone else," the demon said confidently.

Sam cocked the gun and pointed it. "You wanna bet?"

The demon smiled, and then suddenly the black smoke poured out of the man in front of us, who collapsed to the ground. Sam uncocked the gun and laid his head back in relief. I gulped and started testing my limbs, nothing felt broken, a miracle. I looked down, starting to panic, Dean wasn't moving in my lap, he lay half off the seat, propped at an odd angle.

"Dean?" I said, shaking him, his head lolled to the side.

"Dad?" Sam was moving too to check on John in the front seat.

"Oh my god!" The man said suddenly, coming to his senses. "Did I do this?"

"Dad!" Sam's voice carried across us as he tried to reach John who was unconscious in the front seat.

I frantically felt for a pulse at Dean's neck, my breathing coming short and ragged.  
"Dean, Dean!"

The driver of the truck was on his phone calling 911, and I felt myself slipping, my head was ringing, the blood still running down my side. I had a moment to wonder how we were going to get out of this before the darkness claimed me, and I collapsed, falling on the seat next to Dean.

*** TO BE CONTINUED NEXT STORY ***

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**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

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_Well here we are! Season 1, done and dusted. I hope you've enjoyed the finale for the story so far :D I'll be getting straight into Season 2 in the next few days, so don't panic! You might want to favourite me as a writer so that you get the update for the new story when it gets posted._

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_The song for this episode is '__**Reload' by Sebastian Ingrosso ft. Tommy Trash**_

_As always, if you have song suggestions for future episodes, or chapters I've missed, do share, I'm always looking for inspiration! I have a whole Dean & Beth playlist happening, it's getting there, colour me obsessed :D_

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_Thank you to everyone who has reviewed or PM'ed me while I've been writing, your encouragement and enjoyment of the story goes a long way to keeping me motivated to continue with it! I am just happy that someone other than myself is loving the story as much as I am enjoying writing it :D_

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_I will be doing a re-read/edit of the episodes in the near future for grammar, spelling, and formatting issues. If you see any glaring errors in the chapters, particularly as far as continuity goes, please let me know as I really want to get it all wrapped up soon, before I get too far into S2._

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_Welcome to all the new followers – I hope you're enjoying the story. Next update will be in a new story as we start Season 2, so hope to see you over there with a review! :D_


	22. Author's Note - Sequel Posted!

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

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THANK YOU to everyone who has made writing this story so much fun! I have absolutely loved all your feedback and reviews.

I'm still looking for ideas on songs for the first 8 chapters, so if you have any please let me know what you think would suit!

Over the next month or so (Sept 2013) I plan to go back and fix all the typos, grammar issues and formatting from this story. I update really fast so sometimes the proofreading isn't the best. Plus, sometimes I swear eats things! Plus auto-correct likes to "help" out too. One example I'm seeing in the last few episodes is where I write "yards" and it keeps getting switched to "years." Yeah, let's push that car for YEARS!

OK. This is just a little update to say that the sequel _All Hell Breaks Loose _has been posted, so please mosey on over there and have a read if you're interested, and you might like to favourite/follow that story so you get all the updates!

Thanks for reading and enjoy the story!


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